Broken and Bleeding
by Lady Fingers20
Summary: Wanda, Ian, Jared, Mel, Sunny and Kyle go out on a raid for medical and food supplies when a suspicious alarm goes off in the medical building. Wanda is forced to do something that tears her and Ian apart, leaving them both broken and bleeding.
1. Planting

**A/N: Well, this is my first Host fanfic. I have been drabbling with it for a while, and just recently completed it to my liking. I was sort of nervous using The Host characters, because I didn't want to muck it up, and I didn't know how to go about making it right, if you know what I mean. If you have any comments, please review! ******

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

It had been almost a month since I had been inserted into Pet's body and as horrible as it may sound, it was the best month of my life as a human. For a whole month, it had been just me inside this body; no one had been talking back to me like they way that Mel had when I was in her body. I enjoyed the freedom of wandering around and doing as I wished, without someone talking to me. Most of all, I enjoyed being with Ian and falling even more into love with him; which I never thought would be possible.

With it just being me in my host's body I was able to freely express my emotions, and I liked that. A tiny part of me still yearned for Jared's touch whenever I saw him holding hands with Mel or touching her in any way; the memories of his touch was still fresh in my mind. The majority of me was completely in love with Ian.

To me, our relationship felt right. Whenever he touched me, my skin lit on fire. When his lips touched mine, even for a brief second, it felt like he had given me third degree burns on them. This was something that I had to get used to. I was used to feeling how Melanie's body reacted every time that Jared had touched her or looked at her, but that was simply because she still loved him so. This time, it was me that felt this way around Ian; these were all my emotions.

One thing that I still was trying to get over was the blushing. Every time Ian looked at me or smiled in my direction or held me when we were in the company of others; or even alone for that matter; my body immediately flushed crimson. I didn't particularly like feeling so vulnerable, but Ian had told me that he found it endearing. I was still trying to get used to the shyness too.

Life in the caves had improved slightly also. Everyone was more or less friendly to me, only Sharon and Maggie still showed some resentment, but they had come around a little once they saw Melanie back in her body. All the humans in the caves, including myself, were still annoyed by Lacey and her relentless bantering. Even after living in the caves all these months, she still managed to find one thing or another to complain about. Some people had suggested letting her go and have the Seekers catch her, but Jeb pointed out that the Seekers would then put another soul into her and come looking for us. Brandt had recently decided that we should knock her out and leave her for the coyotes to find, which I didn't think was such a bad idea.

Kyle and Sunny were still inseparable, mostly due to the fact that Sunny was extremely nervous whenever she was without Kyle's company. I made an effort to take her with me to do some chores every day to relieve Kyle. He was trying to love her like he loved Jodi, but I knew it was hard for him to accept that Jodi wasn't coming back. Usually I took her to do the laundry with me, but more often than not, she huddled herself into the corner until it was time to go back to Kyle. I sort of felt bad for Kyle, because as much as he loved Sunny, he really wished that she would gain some independence; she would not let him go out on a raid and leave her in the caves, and he wouldn't let her go out as he didn't want to lose Jodi again, so they were at a stalemate in that department.

This morning, instead of thinking about everything that was going on in the caves, I just concentrated on Ian.

We were lying on the makeshift bed that Ian had made; he had found another mattress somewhere and stacked his on top of it to make a double bed so that Kyle could take his old mattress to his and Sunny's cave. I had woken up early this morning; I could tell by looking up at the orange sky through the cracks in the ceiling and was watching Ian sleep.

As usual, Ian was sprawled out on the mattress in every which way. He had somehow subconsciously adjusted himself to the amount of space he took up once we started sleeping in the same bed together; there was just enough room for me to lie comfortably on my back.

I rolled over and lay on my stomach, using my left arm as a pillow and watching his chest move up and down as he breathed. I yearned to reach out and touch his hand that lay so close to me, to run my hand through his hair or stroke his cheek, but I didn't dare wake him up. Instead I thought about him and reflected upon all the things that we had done in the past month.

We hadn't really gotten to work together much, as Jeb kept giving Ian chores to do that required more strength and muscle, and gave me lighter things to do. I wasn't sure if he was doing this on purpose, but I wasn't too fond of the situation. I was surprised that Ian hadn't said anything to him about it yet. Today they were going to start the planting in the second field, so I made up my mind that I was going to go and help out as much as I could; I was tired of doing light and feathery work, I needed something that would get my hands dirty.

I lay and watched Ian sleep peacefully for at least another half an hour before he woke up. He slowly opened his eyes and looked over at me, his blue ones piercing my silver ones, rubbing them a little. Ian smiled as he saw that I was already looking at me and I blushed at being caught, quickly looking away.

"Good morning Wanda," he said to me lightly, still smiling.

"Morning," I whispered, still looking away.

He chuckled and reached out his hand to grab mine, while shuffling closer to me. "I didn't think you could blush this early in the morning," he whispered teasingly.

This caused me to turn crimson.

"Why are you acting so guilty?" he asked, sliding his right arm under my head, wrapping it around me and cradling my body to his. My entire left side felt like it was burning.

"Because I didn't think that you'd catch me looking at you," I muttered, laying my head on his chest as he held my right hand with his left and rested it on his stomach.

Ian kissed my forehead. "Don't be so ashamed, my Wanda. If anything, I should feel extremely guilty about the number of times I've laid awake watching you sleep." His voice rumbled in his chest. "I'm not afraid to admit it. You're gorgeous, and I love you and I can't help but watch you sometimes."

This made me blush even deeper.

He started using his left hand to run through my hair and I nodded, making him chuckle. He kissed my head again and I sighed.

"We should probably get up soon, we have a lot of work to do today," Ian said, still brushing through my hair.

"No, _you_ have a lot of work to do, I'll probably be stuck in the kitchen again," I replied. "I just wish that I could work as hard as I used to be able to in Mel's body."

"I know you do, Wanda. But what you do is just as important as what everyone else does."

"But Ian, all I do is work in the kitchen, wash dishes, do the laundry and clean mirrors," I pointed out.

"Hmm," he said.

"I need to work harder; I need to do more things."

"Wanda, you already do too much for us. Since you came back to us, you haven't taken a day off. You don't need to prove your worth to us, Wanda; everyone loves you and appreciates what you do for us."

I sighed. "You're going to be planting today, aren't you?" I felt him nod. "So then why can't I help with that? It usually requires everyone's help."

"The majority of us are going to be breaking up the soil; I doubt that we'll get to the planting until much later today. You could do something in the morning and then come help plant later on," he suggested.

I shook my head. "No, Ian. I want to help out all day. I don't care that Pet's body can't handle it. I don't care that tomorrow I'll probably be so sore that I can't lift my arms over my head; I need to be able to physically work this body somehow."

He was silent for a minute. "Wanda, I'm sure that there are other things-"

"There aren't," I interrupted him.

I could almost hear him thinking of another possible solution. I lifted my head off his chest and looked right into his eyes.

"Please, Ian. Just this once, then I'll go back to being a good little soul and wash dishes and bake bread and do all the regular things, I promise."

He smiled a little and ran a hand through my hair. "How can I say no to a face like that?" he asked before hugging my body tight to his. "But you're not a 'good little soul'. Don't refer to yourself as a soul; it sounds so degrading. You're much more than a soul could ever hope to be in their wildest dreams."

I snuggled into him and lightly kissed his chest. We lay in this embrace until we could hear Jeb's shouting from down the hall.

"Get up ya lazy buncha louts! Daylight's burnin and times 'a wasting! There's soil to be turned and crops to be planted!"

Since our cave was the first one in the hall, his voice was extremely loud. It didn't help that he came barging through the door seconds later.

"Come on you all, what are you, a bunch of lay-abouts?"

"Haven't you heard of knocking?" Ian asked, holding me tighter to him.

"It's my house and I'll do what I want in it," Jeb replied. "Now come on, Ian. We're gonna need your strength to break the soil. Wanda, there's some laundry to be done, I believe. Up and at 'em!"

"Actually Jeb, Wanda is going to work with me in the second field, if that's alright," Ian told Jeb while I tried to squirm out of his arms to turn and look at Jeb.

"Why how come, Wanda? You don't like the laundry?" Jeb asked.

I finally freed myself from him and sat up. "It's not that I don't like it," I started. "It's just that I'd rather change up the schedule a little bit so it's not so repetitive. And I know that you need a lot of extra hands when you plant crops," I added.

To my surprise, Jeb broke out into a huge grin. "I was wondering when you were gonna say something about the work. I knew that you'd grow restless some day. I was working my darndest to try and make everyone's clothes as dirty as possible just ta give you something to do."

I just stared at him and Ian laughed. "So that's why you've been making me do all sort of dirty work lately? I thought it was just because you wanted the caves to look spotless."

"Course not," Jeb turned towards the door. "I needed to give Wanda something to do," he said before leaving and continuing to yell down the hall.

Ian sat up. "If I'd had any idea that that's why he was making me do all sorts of dirty work, I would have stopped awhile ago."

"I know, it's fine, Ian. You don't have to apologize; it's just another one of Jeb's crazy schemes."

Ian laughed and ruffled my hair before pulling me into another embrace. Instinctively I tried to fix my mussed hair, but he pinned my arms to my sides.

"Wanda, you look fine," he said reassuringly and I shrugged. Ian kissed my cheek before continuing. "We should probably get going, Jeb won't like it too much if he has to make a second round."

I nodded and ran a hand through his dark hair before he let go of me. Together we got changed and stepped out into the hallway where we almost bumped right in to Jared and Mel.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized. Ian held my hand in his and Melanie laughed.

"Wanda, even if you ran into me at full force, I doubt it would do much damage," she said and I scowled. "You know I'm just kidding."

"I know," I replied and we stepped out into the main room.

I started slowing down. "Do you think that I should get right to the second field to help, because they'll-" The look Ian was giving me silenced me at once. He shook his head and tugged me along.

"Wanda, you're going to help us today?" Mel asked once we joined up with them again.

"Yes," I replied. "I'm tired of doing menial tasks while the rest of you do real work."

"What you do is just as important as what the rest of us do," she started again. "Just because it doesn't involve heavy labour doesn't mean it's not important, you know."

"I know," I said as we entered the fairly empty kitchen. "I just need a change of pace."

She sighed and walked over to the nearest spot and sat down.

"I'll go get us some food," Ian said to me before kissing my cheek and walking away to the back of the room with Jared smiling.

I sat down beside Mel and chatted with her until Jared and Ian returned. Lately he had been bringing too much food for me to finish up myself; I was certain that he was so used to getting 'Melanie' sized portions, that he didn't even realize that this body didn't really need half as much as she did. It was tiny, after all and I wasn't working as hard as she did, so I didn't need to refuel like the rest of them did. He always managed to finish off whatever I couldn't eat, so I passed the rest on to him this morning too.

Ian gave me a funny look that said, _"We'll talk about this later,"_ but I was confused. This was never an issue before.

"We're getting low on food supplies," Jared pointed out and Ian nodded. "Time for another raid, I suppose."

Mel groaned. "It feels like we just got back from a raid."

Jared smiled and looked down at her. "We did just get back from one, but that was almost a month ago, and it was a small one, nonetheless. This time we'll have to bring more people..."

"Jared, can't the planning wait until after the crops are in the ground? It's making me tired just _thinking_ about the amount of work that has to be done," Ian said.

Kyle came running into the kitchen just then with Sunny in tow. She sat down across from us while Kyle ran to get food for them. When he returned, Ian asked what we all were thinking,

"Dude, where's the fire?"

"Jeb's on his way," Kyle said, though his voice was muffled through the food in his mouth. "He's mad that not everyone's out of bed yet, and we didn't want to get caught. We had a bit of a lie in," he looked sideways at Sunny and winked at her while she looked down at her plate.

I caught Mel's eye and bit my lip to try and keep myself from laughing, but of course I was blushing. Mel rolled her eyes at me and turned to talk to Jared. Ian wrapped an arm around me and whispered,

"Ready to go?"

I nodded and he made to stand up, but then Jeb came bursting through the door, clearly upset about something.

"On second thought, I want to see what this is about," I said to Ian, pulling his arm back down. He smiled and sat as Jeb began yelling.

"Good, I'm glad to see that at least you people understand what it means when I say there's planting to do. I want to get this done in one day, ya here? We've got a raid to plan, and that means losing our best workers while they go out, and I want to use them while they're here."

Just then a few stragglers came in the room, Lacey included, and Jeb glared at them.

"You know, I really don't appreciate playing the role of a rooster to yous people. You knew there was things to be done, and y'all are laying about like it's Christmas or something."

"Well, I can't function before a certain time in the morning. And I needed to have a shower, my hands are constantly dirty and it's killing my skin," Lacey said to Jeb and Ian choked on his drink, coughing loudly.

"Something funny?" Jeb asked him, trying to ignore what Lacey had just said to him and Ian shook his head.

"Just. A. Cough," he spluttered between coughs. Kyle reached across the table to thump him on the back.

Ian glared at him. "Thanks, Kyle."

Kyle smiled widely back. "Anything I can do to help you out."

After Kyle and Sunny finished, we all headed to the second field and started to grab the tools we would need. Sunny wasn't going to help break the soil, she really wanted to get the seeds ready, so she sat at the side of the field and watched Kyle. The rest of us grabbed mostly shovels that were ready to use and split into two groups to get started.

I was in a group with Ian and Kyle while Mel, Jared and Brandt were another group. We started in the back corner of the field with Ian in front, breaking up the soil, I was in the middle, turning it over and starting to chop the clumps apart while Kyle brought up the rear with a rake, making the ground smooth. I still felt slightly nervous at the prospect of Kyle working in such a close proximity to me with a rake in hand, but Ian squeezed my hand reassuringly before we got to work.

It seemed like we had just gotten started when Ian removed his shirt. Granted, it was quite hot in there and I was working up a sweat; but when he took it off, I glanced at him and immediately blushed. Kyle noticed and started laughing his head off.

"Ian, it seems that you've embarrassed Wanda," he pointed out while continuing to laugh.

This caused me to flush a deeper color of red and duck my head so that my blonde hair fell in front of my face. Ian turned and pushed it back out of the way and held my chin up with his fingers.

"Don't hide, Wanda. I love it when you blush," he said to me, tracing a finger over my cheek.

"Man, Wanda, all Ian has to do is look at you sideways and you immediately turn red," Kyle said. "Doesn't that get tiring?"

I started to nod my head, but Ian held it in place. "Shut up, Kyle. I find it sweet."

I lightly pulled my chin out of his hand. "We should get back to work. I don't want Jeb to yell at us."

"Wanda, you work too hard as it is, we can afford to take a little break," Ian said to me, frowning.

I shook my head and started breaking apart a clump of soil in front of me, successfully ending the conversation. Ian turned back around, shaking his head and we worked right through until it was time for a water break.

Lily came around with water for everyone and bounced right up to us.

"Hello, Wanda. How are you today?"

"Hi Lily, I'm doing alright. I'm a little tired, but what do you expect?" I said walking up to her to grab water for Ian and I. Kyle had gone off to sit with Sunny.

She laughed. "I don't know how you can put all this muscle into this work. I'm only scheduled for the afternoon today. Tomorrow I'm planting all day though. We miss you up in the kitchen though, the one day that I have kitchen duty you're not there."

I took the water from her. "I know, and I'm sorry Lily. I just needed a change in pace for today. Tomorrow I'll probably be all sore and hurting and regret it completely. I just feel like I need to do more around here."

"Oh, Wanda. You do too much for us already; we're forever in debt to you," she said, smiling at me.

Just then Jeb called out "Where's that dang water when you need a drink? A guy like me can't work all morning and expect to go without fluids; that's how people die around here!"

We both laughed. "Well, I guess I should get going with the rounds," she said. "I'll see you later, Wanda."

"Yeah, I'll see you Lily!"

I turned back to Ian and saw that Mel and Jared had joined him and they were all sitting on the soil. I sat down and handed Ian his water before taking a sip of mine. He was done his instantly and I offered him the rest of mine.

"Are you crazy, Wanda? I'm not going to take that from you. You've worked just as hard as the rest of us, you need that for yourself," he told me.

"But you've been working much harder than I have," I protested. 'You should take it. Besides, I already had a cup full of it from Lily while I was standing there talking to her."

"You really shouldn't trust her," Melanie half-whispered to Ian. "She'll just try and do what's right for other people and not think about herself first." She winked at me and I scowled. Jared wrapped an arm tight around Mel and smiled at me.

"I know, I worry about her," Ian said, looking down at me. I held the cup out to him.

"I swear, I've already had a drink, you can take it."

"I don't know whether to believe you or not," he said.

"Ian, it's just water. If she's thirsty later on, she can go get herself one. There's no point in having a silly argument over a cup of water," Jared said to us, chuckling. I pressed the cup into Ian's hand and he tried to hand it back. "If you don't drink it, I will," Jared threatened.

Ian finally took it and drank the cup in one gulp and I smiled. He shook his head.

"How much longer do you figure it'll be before we get to the planting?" Mel asked, looking around.

"Weren't you here the last time we did this?" Jared asked.

"Not technically," she replied. "My body was here, but I wasn't in control of it."

"Sorry," I whispered.

She frowned at me before taking my hand. "Why are you apologizing? You never specifically asked to be put in my body like that. I'm just grateful that it was you and not some other soul like a... a _seeker_," she shuddered and I shrank into Ian's body. "Then I would have _never_ gotten to know you and never come back here to see everyone again." Mel smiled at me. "I couldn't have asked for a better soul to be put inside my head. Besides, you're much more than just a soul to me; you're my family. You're my sister," she lightly squeezed my hand and I returned it.

"Thanks, Mel. That means a lot."

She shrugged. "I don't know why it would, but okay."

"No human has ever said that to me before," Ian cleared his throat and I turned to him. "You say some wonderful things about me, but I'm not your sister," I said to him and he smiled.

"No, you're much more than a sister to me," he said. "You always will be."

I smiled. "Alright, can we turn this conversation away from me now?"

Everyone laughed.

Luckily Jeb came to my rescue. "You've all had yer water break, what are you still doing lying about? Yer not getting paid to sit around and chit chat when there's work to be done!"

Jared rolled his eyes. "I suppose that's our cue." He stood up and pulled Mel up with him and they went back over and started working again.

"We're not getting paid in the first place!" Kyle yelled to Jeb from across the room.

"Shut yer trap Kyle. You get to stay here for free, don't ya?" Kyle didn't answer. "Then there's your pay, now get up and get to work before I shoot ya."

Sunny automatically clutched Kyle's arm and refused to let go of him.

"Oh, and Sunny, I didn't really mean it. I promise; I just have to get his butt into gear somehow," Jeb apologized.

She still didn't seem to calm down and we waited for Kyle to return.

"Let's start without him," Ian suggested, picking up our shovels and handing me mine. "He'll catch up."

"But that's not fair to him, he's just trying to comfort Sunny," I protested and Ian turned to me.

"Wanda, please don't try and defend Kyle. He deserves a swift kick in the ass to get moving. Once he sees the amount of work that needs to be done, he'll find a way to detach himself from Sunny pretty fast."

I shrugged and we started working again.

True to Ian's words, Kyle came running after us and began work almost at once.

About two hours had passed when I started to feel a little funny. I was all clammy and my head was hurting. I closed my eyes to try and suppress the nausea I was feeling and stopped. Ian didn't notice that I had stopped as he was a little further ahead, and Kyle was still quite far behind us, trying to catch up.

I counted slowly to ten before I opened my eyes again. It seemed as though the temperature in the room had increased by about twenty degrees and I could feel myself sweating profusely. When I opened them, my vision was dotted with black spots that were clouding over. I felt light headed and closed them again, leaning my forehead on my hands, resting on the end of my shovel.

I heard someone behind me should out my name, probably Kyle, and I opened my eyes again to try and look around. My vision was still spotted and I just caught a glimpse of Ian throwing his shovel aside and running towards me.

"Ian," I murmured before everything went dark and I could feel myself falling towards the ground.


	2. Bad Dreams

**A/N: Wow! I just have to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has read my story so far! I have received so many new alerts from people who have made my story one of their favourites, and I cannot thank you all enough! It brings a smile to my face whenever I open my inbox and there are new alerts from you lovely readers! : )  
Your interest has compelled me to write and post this chapter faster!**

**Thank you to Midnight Sapphire Eyes, whitereflections12 and hearts-4-stars for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

Fainting was not something that this body had experience with, so I had no idea how to prepare myself for this. Just by hearing of people "passing out", I assumed that meant that people lay on the ground with their eyes closed, unable to move or comprehend what is going on around them. For me, this experience was not what I was expecting.

Instead, I was able to still hear and feel, though my eyes were closed. I heard Ian's cussing and shouts and the sound his feet made on the soil as he raced over to me. I felt someone's arms close around me and could feel my head loll around on its own accord.

Slowly though, the sights and feelings around me began to subside as my body continued to fall in this person's arms towards the ground; it was like I was fighting underwater with an unresponsive body. I heard the blood rush in my ears before I couldn't hear or feel anything. It was all black.

_"The world is moving,"_ I thought, as it did feel that way. _"The dinosaurs have returned." _I then internally laughed at myself and the stupidity of that thought.

I could faintly smell grapefruit, but it seemed far away, and I might have just been dreaming it. I heard hisses of people talking and then something loud that sounded like shouting before there was a noise and then I could smell the grapefruit again. I quickly regained most of my senses, trying to register my surroundings before I opened my eyes.

I felt the arms around me, cradling me to something hard and muscular.

_"Must be Ian,"_ I mused.

I heard shouts from Jeb about fetching more water and moving off to allow more space around 'her'. I assumed that the 'her' he was referring to was me. There was another noise that I recognized as that of an aerosol can and then the grapefruit smell again. I opened my eyes, taking in the scene around me.

Ian's face was hovering over mine and I saw him exhale slightly with relief; his arms tightening around me. Doc was on my right side holding a can of Awake, the smell of grapefruit still in the air. Mel and Jared were kneeling at my feet while Kyle was standing above them with Sunny sobbing into her shoulder.

"Wanda," Ian said hoarsely. "What happened? Are you alright?" He pushed back the blonde hair that was tumbling in front of my eyes and looked quite worried.

"I'm fine," I replied and he glared down at me.

Before he could say anything more, Jeb called out "Move it! Make room for the girls to get through with the water!"

Mel and Jared shifted back a little as Heidi and Lily came forward with bottles of water from the stores. They didn't say a word as they set down the bottles beside me and then turned and left this inner circle. Doc picked up one of the bottles and opened it.

"Here, Wanda; drink up." He handed the bottle towards me, but my limbs still felt heavy from fainting, so I made no motion to grab it. Instead, I shook my head.

Ian took the open bottle and lifted me up gently into a sitting position. My head swirled and I closed my eyes until it passed and I felt Ian's arm tighten around my small waist. He held the bottle up for me again and I shook my head.

"I can't drink that, we need the bottles for emergencies," I protested.

"What, this doesn't count as an emergency?" Ian growled in my ear and I shook my head again. "Damn it Wanda, you just passed out; that is an emergency and you are going to drink every last drop of this bottle."

"He's right, Wanda, you need to drink it. Your body needs to be replenished, seeing as how Ian thinks that your fainting spell was related to dehydration," Doc said and I bit my lip, knowing that it was probably true.

"I still can't. I'll just drink the regular water instead..." I was cut off as Ian pressed the bottle to my lips and the water slid down my parched throat, making me choke.

Mel smacked Ian's arm. "There's no point trying to drown her by forcing it down her throat, you idiot. She'll drink it, you know she will, because no one is going to fetch her the 'regular water', so she can either drink that or drink nothing. I personally think that she'll choose the former," she said, glaring at me the whole time.

"Is she... g-going to... die?" Sunny asked while still sobbing into Kyle's shoulder.

"No," Jeb said, his arms crossed in front looking down on us. "She's going to drink up that water and she's going to like it."

I sighed in defeat. "Fine."

Ian tried to hand me the bottle, but I refused. "I can't, my arms hurt and feel like jelly and I don't know why."

"It's because all the blood rushes to your brain when you're about to faint to protect it," Doc answered my question. "So the blood is now returning to your limbs, making them hurt or tingle a little. Don't worry," he added hastily, seeing the look on my face. "It's temporary, and won't last long at all."

Ian repositioned me so I was sitting sideways in his lap and his left arm was around me. He held the bottle to my lips and I took a sip.

"Finally, I get to feed my baby," he whispered to me. "Not that you're a baby baby, but you're _my_ baby."

"Shut up," I whispered back, blushing

"So Wanda, what do you think caused this spell?"Doc asked me.

I shrugged and took another sip of water. "I don't know, it just sort of came over me pretty quickly."

"Usually these do come quickly, but was there anything that led up to it?"

I told him exactly how I felt before I fainted and tried to describe it as accurately as I could, in between taking sips from the bottle that Ian seemed to tip to my mouth way too often.

"Alright, I can handle it now," I said to him, reaching for the bottle, but he took it away.

"Please let me take care of you, you deserve it," he pleaded and I folded my arm across my stomach again.

"Did you have any of that water that was brought around, Wanda?" Jeb asked. "I noticed you standing and talking to Lily, but didn't see you drink any."

I felt Ian's body harden and he frowned down at me.

"Yes, I did have a drink," I answered him.

"You're a horrible liar, you know that?" Jared laughed and Mel slapped him across the chest.

"This is not a laughing matter," she growled.

"Well, Wanda, there's not much else I can do for you right now, unfortunately. You're just going to have to rest and drink lots of fluids for a little while. No more working for you."

I started to protest, but Ian clamped a hand down over my mouth.

"He's right, Wanda," Mel said softly, brushing my hair away from my face. "You do need a rest; you work way too hard, hon."

I shook my head. "But what about the planting?"

"It'll get done, don't you worry Wanda," Jeb promised. "Well, seeing as she's alright, I say we take her back to her room and get someone to watch over her for a little while."

"I don't need a babysitter," I grumbled before Ian forced me to take another sip.

"Sunny could take her back to the cave," Jared suggested, but by the way Sunny's eyes bugged out, I knew that would be a definite no, having to leave Kyle for that long.

"We could get Jamie?" Mel proposed, and Jeb agreed, but I objected.

"No. I do not need for you to go and rip Jamie out of class for something this silly. Besides, I don't want to worry him," I added on.

"He'll worry anyways, you know he will. Then he'll just be mad that you didn't haul him out of class," Mel pointed out, but I remained firm and shook my head forcefully, making it throb.

I placed my fingers on my temple and began to massage it lightly. Ian bent over and kissed my head.

"I'll stay with her," he concluded, but I shook my head some more.

"No, Ian. They need you here to help plant."

"Wanda, you need me more, right Jeb?" Ian and I both looked up at Jeb who gave us a toothy grin and nodded.

"We'll be just fine without him, you see. In fact, I bet that we get it done faster without him here to try and do turn the soil to absolute perfection," he winked before turning around and heading off, whistling.

"It's settled, let's go," Ian said, picking me up as if I were a simple ragdoll.

"Put me down," I ordered him, and he shook his head, chuckling.

"Not on your life. Hand me those extra bottles, Doc?" Doc passed him the bottles and turned to leave the field, cradling me like a toddler.

Mel leaned in and kissed my cheek before steeping back. "Please feel better soon."

"Yeah, we've got a raid to plan for," Jared added in, which warranted another smack from Mel.

"You are so insensitive," she said before stalking off as he ran after her.

"But babyyyy..." his voice could be heard from all over.

Ian carried me all the way through the maze of caves back to our room, despite my protests. He stopped in front of the doors and looked at me seriously.

"Are you going to be alright if I put you down to open the door? Otherwise we'll be sitting out here, and I doubt that will be comfortable."

I sighed and wiggled a bit. "Of course I'll be fine, Ian."

He placed my feet gently on the floor and I slid down off of him, holding two of the water bottles as he turned to move the red door out of the way. In a matter of three seconds, I could see the black spots in my vision and my head started to swirl again.

"Ian!" I called out, desperately trying to reach out to hang on to the wall and steady myself.

"Wanda!"

He grabbed me around the waist and carried into the room and set me down on the bed. He set me upright and I closed my eyes, trying to fight against the dizziness. I opened them to see Ian frantically searching his pockets for who knew what. He swore when it wasn't in his pockets, so he started tearing through the room.

"Ian, what are you looking for?" I whispered.

"Awake. I knew I should have asked Doc for that can. I could have sworn there was one around here though," he started ripping his clothes off the shelves and threw them all over the floor.

"Ian, I don't need awake, I'll be fine."

"Don't you tell me what you do and do not need," he said, pointing a finger in my direction. "This is my fault that you're like this right now and I'm going to do something about it."

He gave up searching around and sighed, standing in front of her.

"Okay, will you be okay if I just run down to..."he stopped speaking when he realized I was already nodding my head. "Never mind. Let's go, I'll carry you." He held out his hand to me and I shook my head.

"No, Ian. I'm not going anywhere. I don't need Awake, I'm almost back to normal now," I pleaded.

He snorted. "_Almost_. Okay, then what was that little spell out in the hallway?"

I shrugged. "Head rush?" I said weakly.

Ian closed his eyes and massaged his forehead, deep in thought.

"Ian," I started, rising up on my knees, almost pitching forward off the end of the bed. Ian caught my shoulders and gently pushed me back on to the bed.

"Yes, now tell me again how well you're feeling?"

I ignored him. "I don't want to go down to see Doc. I know that if we go down there, you'll have to explain why you need the Awake, and you'll tell him about what happened in the hall and he'll make me stay down there. Frankly, I've had enough of that cave to last me the rest of my life. I'd rather not be down there where he'll be watching over and people can just come by and pry and gossip about me some more. Please, Ian? Just stay here."

"Wanda, of course I'd tell Doc. Fainting once is not normal, especially for you. But then ten minutes later you have another close call? Forget it, he needs to know." Ian turned to pick me up again.

"Ian, please! I don't want to go down there!"

He sighed and crouched down so we were at the same level. "We have to. I want to make sure that you really are okay, Wanda. Someone has to take care of you, and that someone is me."

His words made my stomach flutter, but I remained firm. "Ian, I need you to trust me. I need you to believe me when I tell you that I will be okay. I just need to stay here and rest. What I don't need is to go and see Doc and have to deal with all his questions and people prying. Please, I just want to stay here with you."

Ian closed his eyes and bent his head forwards so he was facing the floor.

"Wanda," he looked up and too my hands in his and I looked down at him, my eyes pleading. Ian sighed before speaking. "Wanda, alright; you can stay here for right now. But, if something else happens, I am picking you up and carrying you directly down to Doc, got it?"

I nodded, smiling at him while he squeezed my hands, but the nodding brought on another tiny headache. I continued to smile at him, pretending that nothing was wrong.

"Wanda?" he asked. "Your head hurts again, doesn't it?"

I shook my head. "No."

"You really are a horrible liar. I can see the pain written across your face, Wanda. Please, let's just go down to Doc," he pleaded.

"No, Ian. It's not even that bad. I... I can't even feel it now," I said to him with a smile on his face.

"Wanda, please. Let's just go."

"No. I came here to rest, and I want to rest now."

I smiled at him and tilted my head to the side.

"You're right, I'm sorry. You need to sleep." Ian stood up in front of me and lifted me up again.

"Ian," I protested, but he simply just moved me so that I was lying with my head on the pillows.

He kissed my forehead, before getting back up and standing on his feet, walking towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "I'm just going to put the door back, Wanda. I had to get you in here fast, you know, there was no time before."

"But you're coming right back?"

"Of course," he said, grabbing the red door and putting it back in place.

Ian walked back over to the bed with a sad smile on his face.

"Lie with me?"

Ian smiled bigger before kissing my forehead and moving a piece of hair out of my face. He lay down beside me on his right side and watched me intently. Under his gaze I began to blush.

"Why are you blushing," Ian asked with a frown on his face.

I shrugged and he laughed. "You need to sleep, Wanda. You need to regain your energy."

I nodded and turned on my side with my back to Ian. He wrapped his large left arm around my waist and pulled me closer so that my back was up against his chest. I heard him sigh and felt him move my hair off of my neck and down my back before he kissed it, right over top of my scar. When his lips touched the scar where I was inserted, I shuddered and immediately calmed down, relaxing my entire body.

"Wanda?" Ian asked, feeling my body relax in his arms. "Is everything alright?"

I nodded, before snuggling into him once again. Within minutes, Ian's arm fell away from my waist as he rolled over, sound asleep already. I turned over myself, and found myself watching him peacefully sleep twice in one day. I giggled to myself before turning back over and falling asleep myself.

My dreams were mostly pleasant, I dreamed that we had finally won this war and had gotten to leave these caves. Ian and I had gone travelling, to see the rest of this country; or as much of it as we could. They got all messed up and jumbled after that, full of bright colors and twisted images before another image became prominent.

"_Ian and I had gone out on a raid with the others and we were at the place where we keep out cache when all of a sudden there was a lot of bright lights and hundreds of Seekers jumped out at us. Ian pushed me behind him, so he was shielding me from them, I pleaded with him that I would be fine, it was them that they wanted, not me, but he wouldn't listen. The others tried to run away, but the Seekers caught up with them easily, throwing them in the back of their trucks; their screams echoing in the desert night. I began to cry as I watched the Seekers pounce upon Jamie and Mel, they were holding hands and screaming, and I couldn't help but screaming out to them as well. I ran out in front of Ian towards the Seekers, but he grabbed my waist, pulling me back to him and crashing my back against his chest. _

"_Ian!" I screamed out. "Let me go! It's me they want! Go! Go and run!" _

_I struggled against him, screaming out and sobbing._

"_No!" he growled. "I won't let you go. Get the pill!" I looked up at him. "GET THE PILL!"_

_He took it out of my pocket and shoved it into my mouth before trying to get his out of his pocket also._

"_On the count of three, we bite them." I nodded and he popped his in his mouth. "One... two..."_

_There was the sound of a gun being cocked. I had heard it dozens of times from Jeb's gun, but now it held a different meaning. They were going to shoot us. I look up at Ian, horrified as he mouthed 'three'. He quickly turned us around and I heard someone pull the trigger on the gun at the same time. His body was pushed into mine, forcefully as if someone had shoved him from behind. _

_Ian's arms fell away from me and he fell to the ground face first. I screamed and sobbed some more, falling to me knees as a trickle of blood escaped his lips onto the desert floor as the blood also poured out of a bullet hole in his back. I touched his face, but his eyes remained open, the blue irises forever frozen in place. I heard the gun cock again and glanced up to see it aimed at me. I kissed Ian's cheek before biting down on the small purple pill."_

My eyes flew open and I realized that I really was sobbing out; it wasn't just in my dream. I sat up, panting slightly as the tears kept pouring down my face. I gasped and turned to see Ian sitting up beside me, looking extremely concerned and made to put his arms around me, but I shook my head. He stopped and I reached out to touch his face, the tears still streaming down my face. I just had to make sure that he really was there, and it wasn't an illusion from my dream.

I reached a trembling hand towards Ian's face as he held perfectly still. I gently touched his cheek, running my fingers under it very lightly as the tears kept running down my own cheeks.

"Wanda," he whispered. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head again and cupped his face with my hand. I stroked my thumb over his cheek before taking it away and turning around, pulling my knees up and coving my face with my hands, succumbing to the emotion of fear that I felt for thinking that I could have lost my precious Ian. My whole body shook violently from my crying and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

I felt Ian's hand tentatively rest on my shoulder before he moved closer to me, and placing his strong, muscled arms around me protectively. He didn't speak, but he let me cry in his embrace, and I was grateful for that.

When I started to regain composure, he turned my body towards his and lifted my chin so my silver eyes were looking into his blue ones. He smiled sadly at me before wiping away a few stray tears from my cheeks with his thumb. His sweet gestures made me start to cry again, lightly though, not nearly as violent as before. He leaned in and kissed both of my eyes, removing the tears from my cheeks with his gentle lips. He peppered my cheeks with kisses until all my tears were gone. He looked sadly into my eyes before speaking.

"Wanda," he whispered. "What's happened, love?"

I bit my lip as I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes again; but this time it was for an entirely different reason. He had never called me 'love' before this moment since I had been inserted into Pet's body. Ian mistook my tears for something else though.

"Oh, please, Wanda, I'm sorry. If you aren't ready to tell me, it's fine, I promise you that. You know that you can tell me anything though," Ian let one of his hands rest gently on the side of my neck.

I closed the distance between our bodies and rested my head on one of his broad shoulders. He shifted and moved my body so that he was hugging me tight into him.

"It was just a nightmare," I whispered to him.

"I know it was, Wanda. Can you tell me what it was about so I can make it better?"

I took a deep breath before telling him.

"We were out on a raid and came to our cache in the desert out there and it was full of Seekers," I began. He impulsively held me tight to him, anticipating what was to come. "They... they got Mel and Jamie almost right away; they tried to run. We had put the purple pills in our mouths and were about to bite down on them when... when..."

I couldn't continue as a new crop of tears began to fall at the thought of what happened next. Ian started stroking my hair with his left hand, effectively soothing me, and letting me cry in his arms. The salt water from my tears was soaking and staining his shirt, but he didn't seem to notice, and even if he did; he didn't care much about it.

"I'm sorry, your shirt," I said, touching the wetness with my right palm.

"Shh, don't worry about it." Ian kissed my head. "What happened then, Wanda?"

I leaned my head into his left shoulder as he continued to stroke my hair.

"We were about to bite down on them when they... The Seekers pulled the trigger and you tried to shield me from it by turning us around. The bullet hit you in the back and you... you..."

I didn't feel the need to finish and he didn't want me to either.

"Stop. Shhhh. It was just a dream, my Wanda. Nothing like that is ever going to happen to us, I promise you."

I leaned away from Ian to look at his face.

"But you don't know that. The Seekers could come in here at any time and bust us all. In an instant, all that you have worked for could be ripped away from you, and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it!"

Ian pressed his forehead to mine and growled.

"I would do something about it; I would fight back."

"I'm glad that you think so, Ian, but think realistically. They are prepared and armed for situations like this; that is the only job that the military have any more. They train specifically for catching any humans that may be potentially hiding out. You wouldn't have a chance, Ian."

He shook his head at me.

"You're wrong."

I frowned. "How do you figure?"

"Your subconscious thought of another way out, rather than being caught. You dreamed it yourself; we are equipped with those little pills." He pulled one out of the pocket of his jeans and held it up." One bite of this and we would be carried off, not by the Seekers, but by God to heaven. If we killed ourselves, they would have no chance of taking us away and more importantly, taking you away from me. We would be together, forever."

He pinched and rolled the pill in his fingers before putting it away.

"Are you sure about that?" I whispered to him.

"Of course, my Wanderer," Ian whispered back. "Come now, let's lie down again and I'll hold you."

"I don't want the dreams to come back," I admitted to him.

"They won't. I promise you, I won't let them. You will be safe with me."

I nodded and he lay back down, pulling me with him. Ian effortlessly pulled me on top of him, but I started squirming in protest.

"Ian, I can't lay directly on top of you; you'll be very uncomfortable!"

He chuckled and the sound rumbled in his chest below my ear. "I will not. You hardly weigh anything; it feels like a feather is resting on me."

With that, he wrapped his arms around me tight before letting one of them rub gently up and down my back. I sighed and lay my cheek down on his chest, and intertwining my legs with his. With my head on his chest, my feet barely reached his knee caps and I giggled to myself.

"What is it, Wanda?"

"Nothing." I could almost feel the doubtful stare he was giving me, so I elaborated. "It's just that this body is so tiny."

Ian laughed. "I think that was the idea when Jamie picked it, you know. He wanted something tiny so that we would protect it; and that's my job. I will protect you from anything; even from your mind and the dreams it concocts. Now Wanda, go to sleep, I can assure you that there will be no more bad dreams for you."

I felt him kiss my head and resume rubbing my back. Eventually he lulled me to the point where I was on the brink of sleep yet again.

I fell for him a little more as I realized that he hadn't fallen asleep before me like he usually did. He stayed up and comforted me by holding me close and whispering sweet nothings in my ear to calm me down.

The last words I remember him uttering before I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep were,

"Sleep, my only love, I am here to protect you. No harm shall come to you as long as I am around. Sleep now, and dream happy dream. I love you so much."

I felt a faint smile on my lips as I slipped into unconsciousness one last time that night.

**If anyone could help me out with this, please PM me or review and tell me the secret, since I clearly can't figure it out... :S  
When I go to upload a new document, it says "**_**Document Limit Reached. You have reached the 15 document limit. Please convert your existing documents to stories and/or chapters before uploading more"  
**_**Please help! If I delete them off the document page, does that mean they're permanently gone? **


	3. Past Lives

**A/N: I don't like huge Author's notes at the beginning of chapters, so I'll keep it short and sweet. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my story! It makes my day to open my inbox and see new alerts and reviews! : ) Thank you from the bottom of my heart!**

**Thank you to Midnight Sapphire Eyes, J.K. Meyer, hearts-4-stars, christinesangel100, Kitkino86, JaneHumen and mcena99 for your awesome reviews! And special thanks to those who helped me out with my document question! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

I was woken up the next morning by Ian's fingers running over my scalp repeatedly. I didn't open my eyes, but felt myself lying directly on top of him, in the same position that I had fell asleep in. I was amazed that I had managed to stay there, as Ian did have a tendency to move around when he slept.

"No, Jared. You can't, it won't be good for her right now," Ian said quietly.

"_Ian?" I thought. "Why is he talking to Jared? Is Jared here?"_

I longed to open my eyes, but I knew that this conversation would cease and I would never find out what they were talking about. Instead, I pretended to still be asleep as Ian kept running his hand rough fingers through my hair.

"You know that we need to do this now, Ian; quit being so protective of her. Wanda's a big girl, she'll be able to handle it," Jared half whispered back.

"At what cost?" Ian spat out as quietly as he could. "You would rather risk her health to get some silly supplies? That's not right, Jared. That's sick and selfish."

"No," Jared countered. "It's called doing whatever it takes to get the job done."

Ian snorted. "Right, so you would have her go out of the caves in the condition that she's in right now and steal stuff for you, only to fall even more ill than she already is and put the rest of us in jeopardy? I don't think so."

"We can't wait though!" Jared almost shouted, but Ian shushed him immediately. There was a pause and I could feel both their eyes on me, checking to make sure that his little outburst didn't wake me.

"We can't wait!" Jared continued in a whisper-yell. "Supplies are already low enough, we need to have a planning meeting this morning and leave by dawn at the latest."

I felt Ian shaking his head. "Absolutely not," he growled. "Wanda needs to rest. She had another near fainting spell last night. She is _not_ going out when her body keeps trying to shut down like this!"

"But she's a vital part of our team!"

"Then your team will just have to wait until she's better. You know that's what everyone else would want. What help would she be if one of us had to carry her around all the time? That would be just asking for a death sentence," Ian retorted coolly.

There was a pause and it was clear that Jared was thinking.

"We're leaving by dawn," Jared concluded.

"Then have a good raid. Wanda and I will be there to see you off. We're not going."

Jared let out a frustrated sigh. "Then I'll just go to Jeb. He'll agree with me."

"Yes, he'll agree that it's the dumbest plan yet! She can't go out like this!"

"Stop acting like her babysitter, Wanda's old enough to make her own decisions. I'll run it by her and see what she thinks."

I felt Ian stiffen. "You will not do such a thing. Look, I'm just looking out for her best interests. I do not believe that going out on a raid so soon after having these fainting spells is a good idea-hell, I don't believe that she should go out on them at all! Oh, please, don't look at me like that."

Ian stroked my cheek before continuing.

"The only reason I let her go out on these raids is because I can see how she loves to help out, and I can see how important she is to our survival. But trust me, once she teaches you all her secrets, she _will not_ be going out on any more raids. And she will not be joining you today. I will personally see to it."

"Ian, she will always be needed on raids; get over that fact quickly." I could hear his footsteps retreating and the door being lifted out of the way.

"You will not mention this to her," Ian threatened.

"Not to her right now. I'm off to find Jeb. He'll make both of you see that it's absolutely necessary."

With that, he slammed the door back in place, and I jumped involuntarily, but it gave me a chance to make it look like that was what woke me up in the first place.

"Wanda?" Ian asked gently.

"Mmnn," I grumbled in response.

Ian's strong arms tightened around me, pressing my side to his chest as he pulled me closer. "Sorry about that. Some people just don't know how to be quiet around here, is all."

I giggled in his embrace and felt his lips press to the top of my head before resting his cheek on it.

"Are you feeling any better?" he asked me softly.

"A little; I have a tiny headache though," I turned in his arms to look up at Ian's face.

His face held a saddened expression and I felt horrible knowing that I was the reason for his sadness.

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

Ian frowned before speaking. "Whatever are you sorry for? This is my fault, Wanda, don't blame yourself."

I started to shake my head before he finished talking, causing my headache to worsen a tinge.

"Ian, this isn't your fault I-"

"Alright, this is both of our faults, let's stop trying to put the blame on ourselves," Ian concluded. He was silent for awhile before speaking again, "Wanda?"

"Yes, Ian."

"I just have one question for you," I felt one of his calloused fingers touch the soft skin on the bottom of my chin, tilting it up so he could look in my eyes. "Did you get a drink of water yesterday at all?"

I swiftly looked away and tried to turn my head away from his gaze to avoid answering his question in fear for his reaction. He was faster though, and he took my chin between his thumb and first finger to keep it in place facing him.

"Wanda, please, just answer me."

I shook my head.

"Why not?"

I sighed, "I'm afraid of your reaction," I admitted honestly.

I saw Ian clench his teeth together and his jaw harden. "Please just tell me, Wanda," he begged.

I shook my head in response, but he mistook it for my refusal to answer his question.

"Wanda, please," he said again, through his clenched teeth.

"No, I... I didn't have a drink of water yesterday," I answered, defeated and flinched as he frowned at me.

"Wanda, why? Why would you lie to me like that? Why would you do that to yourself?" he released my chin and looked away. I felt ashamed.

"I'm sorry," I offered.

"Don't be," he scoffed. "This was my fault. I should have known you would have done something stupid like that, I just didn't figure that you would actually do something as... mindless as that. I thought you were better than that."

His words stung me and I wriggled out of his arms around me, sitting up and turning so that my back was to him. I didn't want him to see the effect that his words had on me. I tried desperately to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall by biting my lower lip; I was sure to draw blood any second for my efforts. Ian had never spoken bad things about me; he was always the one to stand up for me when other did, and I knew that he felt that I was selfless as he had voiced that opinion several times, but never as harshly as this.

For him to say that to me hurt a lot. I felt surprisingly vulnerable, probably because I didn't have anyone to back me up and speak for me; I would have had to defend myself to him. I didn't want to respond to him, because I knew that my voice would give away my emotions and that I would lose my composure. Instead I sat there, biting my lip to keep from crying.

Ian took a deep breath and huffed. "Wanda?"

I didn't respond and continued to sit facing away from him. I felt the mattress move as he moved closer towards me and out of the corner of my eye I could see him lying on his side watching me.

"Wanda, I'm sorry I said that; it was out of line. I just really worry about you sometimes, especially when something like that happens. I don't think you fully understand how much I love you; or how dangerous the situation could have been yesterday. I...If Kyle didn't see you...I...I," he stopped and took another breath. "Dehydration is a serious issue, Wanda, especially down here. We're surrounded by walls of rock, with the sun beating down upon us; it tends to get hot exceptionally fast in here. There is a reason that we take water breaks, out bodies can't go without if for long, I realise that you may not know that from your preparations before coming to this planet, but-"

"I may not have been informed of that, but I experienced it, if you'll remember," I said to him, my voice betraying me and silent tears fell down my cheeks.

"Oh...I....Wanda," Ian sat up and pulled my shoulders gently back so I was resting against his strong, muscular chest while his legs spread around me. "I didn't mean it that way."

"It's fine. But trust me, I know how long I can go without water; I had to experience it trying to find you all in the first place, remember. I know when my body is about to go over the edge."

Ian was shaking his head. "No, you know when _Mel's_ body is about to go over the edge; not this one. This body is significantly smaller than hers, so the tolerance level will be much lower than hers, not just in the muscular endurance component either."

I sighed. "I suppose. But I was alright, you know. There wasn't a reason to panic like that."

"Sure there was. Can I tell you something?"

I nodded and he traced the tips of his fingers up and down my arms making me shiver.

"When I heard Kyle call your name and turned to see you bent over like that, I was scared. I knew that something was wrong and that I had to fix it. You looked up and me and your eyes glazed over, so I started running. I..." he shook his head. "If either of us were any further away, I wouldn't have made it to you fast enough. As I saw you were falling, I thought to myself, _'Why her? Please not her.'_ Do you know why?"

"No, Ian," I whispered.

"I need you in this life with me, Wanda. You complete me, and I couldn't imagine losing you; ever. I thought that I didn't need anything except the knowledge that I was still alive to keep me going, but I have come to realize that that is not entirely true anymore. I need you. Having you in my life has opened my eyes to the world around me." Ian hugged my back to him and continued.

"Before you came to me, I wasn't whole; even before we fathomed that the souls would ever come to this planet, I wasn't whole. I...I mean I had my parents and Kyle and they were good to me; well, Kyle was as good to me as only he could be, you know him."

I quickly realized that Ian was about to tell me about his past life, a part of it at least. That's what they all referred to their lives before us souls came; their past lives. It killed me to hear them speak like that, and to know that I had a hand in destroying their lives. I turned my body ever so slightly so that I was cuddled into Ian's left shoulder with his arms still wrapped around me and my head was resting on his chest.

"I...I don't know if you'll fully understand this, but," he looked away and swallowed before speaking again. "I would watch my parents interact with each other, and a part of me felt like weirded out the way that they acted with each other; they were so in tune with each other and just dripped sappiness wherever they went. It wasn't until I sat down and thought about it that I realized that they truly were in love with each other. That their love, after all those years hadn't digressed in any way, in fact, it must have strengthened if anything,"

"Then I saw how Kyle and Jodi were together. Once I got over how sickening it was to watch my brother grope another girl and publicly make out with her, I realized that they too had a bond similar to our parents. They had a bond that was almost stronger than blood; they would do anything for each other and fight to keep it that way, no matter what,"

"That's when the souls came," he whispered. "My family struggled to stay together, but we knew that the end was coming. Jodi's parents wanted her back home with them, and both she and Kyle fought valiantly to allow them to let her stay with him. In the end, Kyle gave in and reluctantly returned Jodi to her parents, in the hopes that they would escape, like we were planning to do. He blames himself, more than anyone else for her getting caught and having Sunny inserted in her. He believes that if he hadn't given her up that she would still be the same Jodi; that he wouldn't have lost her,"

"Our parents fought brilliantly to keep us together, and I admire them for that. My father had heard of Jeb and his clan and the night that Jodi left, we left too. We headed south, trying to find this place. About two weeks into our journey, just down outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, my father was trying to get us more food to eat when he fell,"

"He was right near the car when it happened, and we all ran out to him. He had tripped over the root of a tree and his leg was stuck and by the way that it was angled, we knew that it was broken. My parents quickly decided that Kyle and I would continue on towards here in hopes of finding this place while they would stay. My father tried to convince my mother to come with us, but she wouldn't leave his side. She wanted to be there when...when the Ss...Seekers found them; as it was inevitable that they would, we were out in the open,"

I could feel Ian shaking against me, and I looked up at his face to see that he was crying while telling me this story. I hadn't really seen Ian cry before; especially not in a circumstance like this, and I was shaken up. I reached up and touched my small hand to his cheek that was covered in stubble from not being shaved for awhile.

"Ian," I said quietly, my heart breaking at the sight of him. "You don't have to continue. I can see how much pain that you're in, and I know this is hard for you. You don't have to," I continued but he shook his head.

"I want to, Wanda. I've never told anyone this before, and I want you of all people to know what happened to us," he turned his head so that my palm was now over his soft lips. "I love you," he said before kissing it.

I smiled sadly at him and wiped away a single tear as it fell down his cheek. Our morning had taken an abrupt turn of events; it started with Ian being upset for me not drinking the water yesterday and passing out to him telling me the story of how he ended up here; the story of his past life. He was bearing his soul to me and I had to be strong for him, he'd been there enough for me, it was my turn to be there for him.

He took a shaky breath before continuing.

"It killed me to have to drive away, leaving my parents broken on the side of the road. I wanted desperately to stay with them, but it ended up that Kyle picked me up and put me in the car before driving away; I wouldn't have ever been able to drive away otherwise. I truly realized that my parents were my heroes and that I would strive to be like them one day. They would do absolutely anything to make sure that Kyle and I were safe, at any cost to them; they loved us enough to give up their lives to keep us safe; hoping that we would do them justice when we reached safety,"

"After many weeks of searching, we eventually found Jeb and Maggie and Sharon and everyone, and they accepted us into their lives with open arms; like one big family. When we arrived, Kyle disappeared for a long time. Upon arrival and seeing how few people there were here, he lost hope that he would ever see Jodi again. It took him weeks to break out of his depression over her,"

"While Kyle was grieving over Jodi, I did some serious thinking. It really hit me then that Kyle was the only person that I had in this world anymore. Surely our parents would have been founded and souls inserted into them in that time, and they wouldn't be the same anymore; I had lost them. I mourned them; I considered them dead. Kyle had lost his Jodi, and in turn I had lost a sister. Before all this happened, he was going to ask her to marry him, but that all got put on hold. My parents had each other to love and hold onto until their death, Kyle had Jodi to love and cherish up until they were separated, but I had no one,"

"Sure, I had dated some, but it never felt right. I truly believed that I hadn't found the person I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, and I had never experienced love. I guess when we arrived here, I lost hope; I gave up thinking that I would ever find someone for me, as there were evidently so very few humans left,"

"Then you came along, Wanda," he gently brushed a few strands of my blonde hair out of my eyes before placing a kiss on my forehead. "Granted, I wasn't exactly the most... accepting of you in the beginning, and I will forever regret that."

Ian's fingers lightly grazed the side of my neck where all those months ago he had held Mel's neck between his fingers, trying to strangle us.

"I swear I'll spend the rest of our lives together trying to make it up to you, Wanda; I promise you that," Ian bent his head down and placed a sweet kiss on the tip of my nose.

I would have said something back to him, but I decided to stay silent and let him continue, I had a feeling that he wasn't finished, and I was right.

"Anyways, I came around pretty fast, realizing that it wasn't your fault that you had been inserted into Melanie's body, and that you clearly weren't hell bent on turning us over to the Seekers. I saw how scared of us, of Jared, you were; that there was no way in my mind that you would be one to trick us into trusting you and then betray us. I just wish that Jared had seen that sooner and not treated you so horribly; though I am _very_ glad that he decided not to kill you both,"

I shivered involuntarily at the memory of Jared wanting to kill us and Ian pulled me closer to him.

"All too quickly, I found myself consumed with _you_, Wanda, not Melanie, but the soul residing in her. I found you very fascinating and couldn't stop thinking about you. Even though it was Mel's body, you were the one speaking, it was your actions that were portrayed through her limbs, your thoughts, your ideas; well, for the most part anyways. I know that Mel was in there with you, but I found myself wanting you. I fell in love with you while you were still in her body,"

"When I walked in and saw you in Doc's hand with Mel lying on that _table,_ I literally snapped. It felt like someone had crushed my heart to see Jared happily cleaning Melanie up while Doc was standing there, debating what to do. It killed me, Wanda; I doubt you'll ever know. It killed me to know that Kyle had his Jodi back; to an extent, and now Jared was getting his Mel back, but I was losing you. I couldn't let that happen, I wasn't just going to stand by and watch you die; not after all the fighting I had done to keep you alive, especially knowing that I loved you,"

"Then I got you back, and I felt complete. For the first time in my life, I felt whole. I was allowed to freely love you without any sort of barrier in the way like there had been when you were in Melanie's body. I knew that with you by my side, I could finally fully appreciate the love that my parents had; the love that Kyle felt for Jodi, or Jared for Melanie,"

"As I saw you falling, I worried that I was losing you. Anything could have happened to you; your heart could have stopped, you could have choked, who knew. You might have closed your eyes and never opened them again. I was frantic. If you were to leave me, I would have no hope for the rest of eternity; I would have lost the one thing gluing me to this planet. Now that I know what it's like to really live, I don't believe that I would be able to exist without you, Wanda. I don't think you understand what that would do to me-"

I spoke up then, my voice raspy and I was on the verge of tears. "I do know, Ian; I do know what it would do to you. You forget that I feel the same way about you; me, the little tiny silver worm inside this body. If you, for whatever reason ceased to exist anymore, there is no doubt in my mind what I would do, at the expense of Pet's body."

Ian frowned at me. "No, you wouldn't."

I sat up on my knees so our eyes were at the same level. "But I would, Ian, I would. I love you with every ripple, fibre and atom of my soul being. I came to realize that more after all that you have just told me, Ian. I wouldn't be able to live without you."

"Then I would do the same, Wanda. If you died, I would too, no question about it."

"You can't," I whispered to him. "Promise me that you wouldn't, please."

Ian frowned. "So what, if I were to die, you could rip yourself up into shreds, but if you were to die, I would have to keep on living?"

I nodded.

"That hardly seems fair."

"I know, Ian, but I wouldn't want you to give up your life for me."

"But you know that I wou-"

I pressed a tiny finger to his lips to stop them from moving any more. "I know that you would do that, but I don't want you to. I have lived almost ten lives so far, I have experienced all that I feel I need to do, so if I died, I wouldn't feel that I hadn't lived. But you, this is all you've experienced," I took his face in my hands and touched our noses together. "Your life is incredibly short as it is, I wouldn't want you to end it prematurely because of some silly soul dying. I'm sorry about this, I didn't mean to start an argument after all that you have just told me, but please, just promise me that you wouldn't."

I looked at him with pleading eyes, and he closed his, nodding ever so slightly, moving my head too.

"I promise you, Wanderer." He touched my arm again, lightly tracing his fingers over it, watching the goose bumps magically appear wherever they went. "Now you have to promise me something."

"Anything," I whispered.

"Promise me that you will stop referring to yourself as a soul. In any context, or any wording. I've told you hundreds of times before that you are so much more than a soul; they are lifeless creatures who are bent on taking over planets. You are different. Promise me that."

I nodded my head. "I promise you, Ian," I said, repeating his vow from before.

I smiled very weakly and pressed my lips to his quickly. To my surprise, his hand came up to the back of my head, holding it in place before I could break away like I had planned on doing. His soft, full lips moved gently on mine and I reveled in the feeling of them. He slowly deepened the kiss and my hand gently touched his cheek. Ian moved his hand lower on my head, down to where my scar was and he began to slowly run his fingers over it. I smiled on his lips and felt more relaxed.

We broke away slowly and he placed one more quick peck on my lips before looking at me.

"Thank you for letting me talk about all of this. I needed to tell someone, and even though it pained me to revisit those times, I feel a lot better now."

"Ian, you don't have to thank me. If anything _I _should be thanking _you_ for telling me your story."

"Why?"

"For trusting me enough to tell me in the first place; it means a lot to me."

"Wanda," Ian pulled me closer, kissing both of my cheeks before hugging me tight. "I trusted you with my heart, which is a huge step for me. After doing that, I have so much faith in you and I love you even more, if that is possible. There is nothing in this whole entire universe that I wouldn't trust you with."

I felt the tears well up in my eyes and they spilled over before I got a chance to stop them. I buried my face in his neck and tried to hide them, but it didn't work.

"Wanda, are you crying?"

I nodded my head and he pulled back to look at me.

"Why ever are you crying, my love?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm crying because I'm not sure what I did to deserve you. I'm not sure what happened that made you love me, but I can see that it is inevitable. I'm crying because I love you so much, Ian. I'm crying because of your story; I never realized just how much everyone had to lose in order to get to this point. I'm sorry."

"Wanda," Ian breathed, pulling me back to him so he could hug me again. "Please don't cry. I love you and we were meant to be together, please don't doubt that. Don't think my love for you could ever lessen. Please don't put the blame of what happened to my family on you. You weren't even here when it happened. You were probably in a ship on your way over here; there was no way that you would have known about us. Nothing you could have done would have prevented what happened. It's like you said, it was inevitable."

Ian's voice cracked on the last word and I could feel him shaking again as he cried into me. His large hand ran through my smooth, silky hair over and over in an attempt to calm us both down and I tightened my hold on his body. We sat together on the edge of the bed and cried in our embrace, mourning the life that Ian had lost, yet rejoicing the fact that we had each other.

**Oh! And if you haven't gone and seen High School Musical 3 yet, you should go! I saw it last night and loved it! Has anyone else seen it? Thoughts? Comments?  
Review! : )**


	4. Interruptions

**A/N: Wow. I don't really know what to say. I am so thrilled that people are actually reading my story and reviewing! I'm so happy! I love each and every one of you that reads/reviews! : ) I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I know I say that a lot, but it is so true!**

**Thanks to hearts-4-stars, J.K. Meyer, Forever Your Angel, vanilfrappe, shouvley and SeanEmma4Evr for your wonderfully awesome reviews! : ) Hugs for all!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

I ran out of tears after awhile, but Ian seemed to have a lot of emotions hitting him all at once and succumbed to them. He kept crying and I ended up holding his head to my chest, running my fingers through his hair to try and calm him down. I felt bad that I couldn't do anything more for him; it just felt like he was so broken that I didn't know what to do. I ran my fingers through his soft hair again and kissed the top of his head right at his hairline. I lay my cheek on his head and stoked his cheek gently, wiping away the tears that had fallen.

"Wanda," Ian said gently, his voice breaking and cracking. "Wanda."

"Ian, I'm right here," I whispered back. "I'll always be right here."

Ian wrapped his arms around me tightly and looked up at me. What I saw broke my heart.

The face that is always usually so full of life was so crushed, that I felt my heart plunge into my stomach at the sight of it. His blue eyes that usually twinkled and shone were flat and dead looking. I reached up and touched my small hand to his forehead and traced my fingers down his cheek to rest on it and cup his jaw in my hand. My hand barely covered his whole cheek, but he rested his head in it all the same.

"Ian," I whispered to him and he smiled very weakly at me. "Oh, Ian."

I leaned closer and kissed his stubbly cheek with my soft lips before doing the same with the right cheek. I could taste the salt from his tears and I let my lips linger longer on his cheek before I made to pull away from him. Instead, it seemed that Ian had other plans.

He didn't let me go very far, I could see his eyes and there wasn't much space between our faces as he wrapped his fingers through my hair at the back of my head. The corners of his lips twitched and I saw a small sparkle in his eyes before he pulled my head closer to his so that our lips briefly touched. The static electricity that occurred between our lips was astounding and magical- I'd never felt anything like that before. Ian must have felt it too, as a second later, he crashed his lips to mine and they were moving at a fast pace.

My eyes flew open, as I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction from him, but I closed them again when it became clear that neither of us were about to let go anytime soon. I kissed him back just as passionately, which made a groan escape his lips from deep within his throat.

"Ian," I murmured when we broke apart for a quick breath of air before our lips collided again.

He was kissing me furiously, with one hand still wrapped in my blonde hair, messing it up, no doubt. His other hand wrapped around my waist and he effortlessly lifted me up with the one arm and placed me on his lap so that I was straddling him. I had to break away as we both needed to breathe for a minute, but I started kissing his neck in the meantime.

"Wanda," he gasped before pulling my face back up to his.

I wound my fingers through the hair on the top of his head while still sitting on him, and I felt his tongue brush my lower lip. I stopped kissing him, shocked for a second at his intentions- I was not prepared me for this sort of intimate contact, especially as he had not initiated it before. Ian gave me a puzzled and confused look, to which I smiled back, realizing that it was an innocent gesture meaning no harm.

Instead, I shook my head and pressed my lips to his once again. He smiled on mine before fusing our lips together again, in a more passionate embrace than before. Ian's tongue touched my lower lip again, and this time I didn't stop; instead, I gave him the entrance that he was looking for right away.

He let out another low moan when our tongues began to tangle and I pulled him closer to me; I wanted every part of him to touch me and felt that there was too much space between us. Ian seemed to have the same idea as his arm tightened around my waist, making it so that my chest was crushed up against his; I pulled his face closer to mine and revelled in our closeness.

Ian started to move then and sat up on his knees. I clung on to him and he effortlessly kept my body pressed up to his and our lips touching; as if I were a simple rag doll. He manoeuvred us around so that his back was to the door before he pulled his lips from mine. I whimpered and he chuckled; his voice was an octave lower than it usually was.

Ian gently laid my back on the bed and once I was lying down I wasted no time in grabbing the back of his head and crashing his lips to mine. He positioned himself in a way so that I felt his body pressed up against me, but his weight wasn't crushing me. My hands started to explore; they left his head and travelled down his strong arms, feeling the large muscles bulging and caging me underneath him securely. From there, they touched his chest and made their way down to his stomach. I could feel his muscles ripple and tense under my fingertips and I couldn't help but smile.

He broke his lips away from mine too quickly for my liking, though I knew we had to breathe. Instead, they moved down my jaw line to the hollow of my throat where he began to kiss and suck on the tender skin, making me shudder and gasp. He pulled away from my neck eventually and flashed me a smile before kissing my nose and cheeks. My hands, still down on his stomach began tugging and toying with the hem of his shirt, pulling it up to expose some of his skin. Ian quickly reared up and removed the t-shirt swiftly from his body and throwing it somewhere behind him before leaning back down and attacking my lips hungrily.

My hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they cupped his jaw on both sides of his face, holding him to me. Ian began to deepen the kiss, making it more sensual and sweet at the same time. Neither of us had a lot of experience in this department, but it all seemed natural when we were together. His tongue slipped back into my mouth as I felt his fingers brush against the soft skin of my stomach.

I gasped and felt his smile on my lips before he kissed me again. His fingers crawled up and under my shirt to where my ribcage stuck out before trailing their way back down. They then began to traces circles on my hip, making me squirm.

We needed to breathe, so his lips broke from mine again, much to my dislike and began sucking on the same spot on my neck as before. My hands gripped his broad shoulders before sliding down to his large biceps, where they held on while he was busy.

I closed my eyes and smiled before I felt his lips upon mine once again. I kissed him eagerly and fervently, not wanting to break away from his perfect lips again. I could feel an insistent prodding on my stomach and moaned out loud.

"Wanda?" Ian asked, our lips touching still, his voice dark and full of lust.

I kept my eyes closed and moved our lips together before speaking.

"Ian, please," I whispered, the tone of my own voice surprising me.

Not being able to stand having his lips on mine and them being dormant, I captured them in another long, drawn out kiss. We broke apart gasping for air.

"What is it Wanda? What do you want?"

"Ian... please," I spluttered while trying to breathe in as much air as I quickly could.

Ian dropped his head to my ear, kissing the skin beside the lobe before taking it in his lips and sucking on it. I groaned and squirmed beneath him, causing him to moan delightfully in my ear, his deep voice sounding erotic and making me wiggle again.

"Wanda?" he whispered into my ear, acting the part of the gentleman, even at a time like this and asking for my permission.

I hardly hesitated, knowing that this was right and knowing exactly how much I loved him.

"Ian, please," I pleaded.

His fierce lips met mine once again and our tongues tangled, his sweet breath filling my mouth, making me feel intoxicated by his presence.

"Anything for you, my Wanderer," he said softly.

Ian's rough, calloused fingers stopped tracing circles on my hip and began their trail up my stomach once again. He kissed both of my cheeks and my nose before trailing his kisses along my jaw; from my mouth to my ear and back again. I could feel my shirt creeping up with his fingers but didn't make a move to stop him. This moment between us felt right, and I certainly wouldn't do anything to stop him; I loved him and trusted him.

Eventually, my shirt was bunched up over my bra and was sitting uncomfortably mashed between us, so Ian tore his lips away from my neck and I lifted my head and arms up so that he could quickly slide it over my head. Instead of returning his lips to mine, Ian looked down at my upper half and smiled. I immediately flushed a dark shade of red and touched my index finger to his chin, pulling it up so that he was looking at my eyes again.

"This is not a free show," I muttered as his face loomed closer to mine.

"You're beautiful, my Wanda," he murmured back before capturing my lips again.

I was still blushing as our lips moved in perfect synchronization with each other and my mindless hands began to wander again. They began to trace a path down Ian's bare chest, feeling his solid muscles beneath my fingertips as they contracted at my touch. As they crept lower towards his stomach, Ian's big hands captured both of my wrists and slowly dragged them up above my body and rested them on the bed over my head.

I tried to twist my hands out of his grasp, but his grip on them tightened, holding them in place. I sighed and he pulled his lips away from mine to once again start to suck at the skin on my neck that he seemed to be partial to. I smiled at his actions and relaxed my hands under his, which he reacted to by putting both of my wrists in one of his hands to let the other one stroke my cheek softly. Ian gave my neck one last kiss before growling a little and biting down on the skin.

I let out a louder moan and twisted my legs beneath him. All I wanted was Ian at this moment, and I really wasn't sure of what was going to happen as neither Pet's body or I myself had had any sort of experience like this before. My subconscious, however, seemed to know exactly what it wanted.

Ian's lips left my neck and he began to trail kisses down my chest, across the top of my breasts before kissing down the middle of them. His free hand started to trail down my cheek, under my neck and down collarbone. I closed my eyes with my arms pinned above my head and indulged in the feeling of Ian's touch. His hand continued down the side of my body and grazed the side of my breast, still contained in my bra. The contact that his hand made with the delicate material make me moan out loud, arching my back towards him so that our chests were touching and Ian groaned roughly in reaction.

Ian's head dipped back to my skin again and he began to kiss it faster. He shuffled his body down and I could feel him resting against me, making me shudder and move my hips so that they fit snugly beneath him. The resulting contact nearly made me scream out, but instead I bit my lip.

"Ian, please" I pleaded again, my voice raspy and my breath coming out raggedly.

His response was to flick his tongue out on the skin over my belly button and I whimpered. His head dipped lower again as he neared the top of my shorts, still leaving a path of kisses leading to them. Ian took the top of the shorts in his teeth as his free hand began to unbutton the top button, holding them in place. I wanted him to hurry up, but at the same time this sweet torture was bliss to me.

He got the first button undone and was working on the second one when there was a loud noise in the hall and someone came bursting through the door. I shrieked in reaction and Ian jumped at the noise, releasing my shorts from his teeth. I opened my eyes to see Kyle standing a few feet away from the bed, his eyes bulging out of his head.

My immediate response was to blush crimson and try to move my hands around to get Ian to let go of them so that I could cover myself up. Ian's grip tightened on them until I growled at him.

"Ian," I hissed and he let them go and I crossed them over my chest to cover myself.

Ian lifted his head up and turned to see who was standing in the room with us. He groaned when he saw that it was Kyle, but it wasn't the sultry groan that he was emitting minutes before; this one was annoyed and angry. He briefly looked up at me before resting his forehead on my stomach in defeat.

"What do you want?" Ian said angrily, his head still on my stomach.

Kyle shook his head and cleared his throat before speaking.

"I... Uh, well..." Kyle ran a hand through his hair nervously and averted his eyes from looking at us, instead becoming interested with a crack on the wall. "I was looking for you guys, I didn't think I would find you here..."

I started fumbling around, looking for a shirt to throw on so that I could sit up, but once quick glance around the bed and I couldn't find any within my reach. I settled on trying to pull the covers over my chest, but they were caught underneath Ian. I tugged on them and he looked up at me, frowning, so I tugged harder. He understood what I was trying to do and instead of moving to free up the sheets, he moved his body up on top of mine so that his shoulders and chest were covering me.

"Thank you," I whispered in his ear and he kissed me in response.

I broke away and pointedly looked at Kyle who was still standing there. Kyle had noticed how Ian had moved around and was now frowning and glared at us, apparently angry at the situation.

"What is it, Kyle?" Ian asked again.

Kyle cleared his throat, still glaring at us.

"I've been looking all over for you; Jeb wants you. What I didn't want was to walk in on my brother tangled together with his... soul," he spat out the last word and shuddered.

I wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but Ian leapt off of me and pinned Kyle to the wall beside the door. I took this second to jump up and grab Ian's discarded shirt off the floor before running over to them.

"Why do you speak of her like that? Huh? Why?" Ian growled at Kyle, slamming his body into the wall.

"Ian, stop," I said to him, not wanting to see Ian treat his brother like this.

"That's all she is, Ian, or do you forget that? Wanda is not a _person_, she's a soul," Kyle hissed back.

Ian shoved Kyle's body into the wall again and I screamed for him to stop.

"She is _not_ a soul," Ian snarled. "She is much more than a human, much more than you could hope to be."

Kyle cackled. "You wish. I can't believe that you 'fell in love' with such scum as a _soul_," he continued. "I could never bring myself to stoop that low. You must be pretty desperate."

Before I could stop him, Ian punched Kyle in the face. I screamed out in horror.

"Ian!"

"It's fine, Wanda," Ian said to me, his eyes still trained on Kyle who had bent down, covering his face in his hands.

Kyle removed his hands from his nose and looked at the blood pooled in his hands, shaking his head.

"She's got you brainwashed good."

Ian rushed forward to push Kyle again, but I stepped forward to pull his arm back. He reluctantly took a step away with me gripping his arm.

"She does _not_ have me brainwashed, you idiot! I love her; she is my other half. You wouldn't understand that, you useless ass."

I tugged on his arm to try and get Ian to turn away from his brother, but instead, he firmly planted his feet and began speaking again.

"If memory serves me right, Kyle," Ian's face contorted as his brother's name passed through his lips. "You fell in love with a soul too; you fell in love with Sunny."

Kyle shook his head as he moved over to the door. "You're an idiot. I could never fall in love with her. There's a difference between falling in love with a bloody soul, and being in love with the person and the body who that stupid little worm infested. If I could have it my way, that would be Jodi out there," he pointed towards the hallway with one of his hands, the other still covering his nose. "It would be Jodi by my side and that leech would be halfway to another galaxy by now aboard a ship!"

My jaw dropped at his words and I stood there, dumbfounded at his confession. I realized that I was gripping Ian's arm a little too hard and slackened it immediately. I choked on a breath of air and watched as Kyle walked to the door and turned around to face us again.

"If I could have it my way, _she_ would be on that ship with 'Sunny'." Kyle glared at me and Ian growled. "Better yet, she could meet the fate of all those other souls that we tried to extract before; either way, I would be happy."

Kyle left the room, cursing at the blood still pouring down his face, slamming the red door back in place. As soon as he was gone, I fell to my knees and covered my face with my hands, sobbing into them. Ian stayed rooted to the spot for a few minutes just staring at the door, having an internal struggle with himself. He took a step towards the door before crouching down beside me and wrapping me up in his arms.

"Wanda," he said to me in a soothing voice, rocking me back and forth.

"How could he say something like that? How could he?" I choked out between sobs, my voice sounding broken.

"He can say something like that because he is selfish. He doesn't like to see the other side to a situation."

I looked up at him, frowning, not believing that Ian was actually standing up for his brother.

"Wanda, I'm not defending him, I'm just telling you about the way that his mind works." I nodded and he took a breath before continuing. "Kyle is being an idiot, Wanda. Don't believe a word that he says; I can guarantee that he has some feelings for Sunny, whether he knows it or not. He may have thought about shipping her off in the beginning, but I don't believe that he would do that now; they've spent so much time together that I can guarantee that he would have changed his mind. If he was faced with that situation, he would not ship her off," he said to me confidently.

I nodded and began to wipe the tears off my face but Ian's hands stopped mine and he brushed his fingers across my cheeks, wiping away the remaining ones.

"You know that he didn't mean what he said at the end, right?" Ian looked at me curiously.

I shook my head and looked away. "I don't know... he seemed pretty convincing Ian."

"Wanda," I looked up into his eyes as he continued. "He would never do such a thing. I would never let him; I won't let him near you if he's still having these thoughts about getting rid of you. I thought that this ended a long time ago when he decided to make that truce with you. I had no idea he was still thinking this way. I won't let it happen though, Wanda."

I smiled up at him and leaned in to wrap my arms around his body. Ian hugged me back tight and kissed the top of my head.

"Now, we should go get something to eat and then go and find Jeb," Ian said.

"Shouldn't we find him before we eat? Won't he be mad if we go somewhere else first?" I asked him, looking up at his face.

"No, I'll just explain that you needed to get some food in you so that we didn't have another repeat of yesterday. He'll understand," Ian shrugged and then smiled down at me. "Trust me, come on."

We stood up and Ian looked at me before chuckling.

"What?" I demanded.

"Well, people might begin to talk if you go walking around in my shirt," he said trying to stifle a laugh.

I blushed before walking over to our shelves of clothes and picking out a tank top that we had picked up on the last raid. Before I was able to take off Ian's shirt, his hands wrapped around my waist from behind and he kissed the skin beside my ear.

"Just so we're clear, I personally am not objecting to you wearing my clothes, I just figured I'd save you from the possible embarrassment we might have had to suffer if Jared or Mel saw you in my shirt."

I turned in his arms and swatted his arm playfully, making him roar with laughter and I pushed him backwards.

"Well, you need to change too, you know. You can't exactly go wandering around without a shirt on," I replied.

"I don't need a shirt," Ian said, shrugging off my comment. "It'll just be discarded once we start working anyways."

I sighed and turned back to my tank top, my hands at the hem of his shirt, ready to take off Ian's shirt and replace it with my own when I felt his hands on top of mine, guiding it up and off my body. He took it out of my hands and threw it somewhere while I grabbed my shirt and put it on.

I turned to face him. "Ready?"

Ian broke out in a huge grin and chuckled to himself. I started to frown while he laughed; clearly missing the humour.

"What is so funny, Ian."

"You might want to find another shirt, Wanda. Do you have anything that covers your neck?" he asked me, and my eyes widened in horror.

"Oh no," I said, turning and frantically looking around for the small mirror that we kept stashed in here somewhere.

Ian stood there laughing at my reaction, unable to help himself. I looked everywhere before dropping to my knees and looking under the bed, finding the mirror and pulling it out to look into it. I gasped as I took in my reflection.

My lips were unusually swollen and red; I touched them lightly and shook my head. I turned my head to the right and looked at the spot under my left ear that Ian kept sucking on earlier and my jaw dropped. I saw a massive and ugly purple and blue bruise looming under the skin and made a face, which caused Ian to laugh harder at my predicament.

"This is your entire fault," I grumbled, rising to my feet to look for something to cover it up with. "Do you have a scarf?"

Ian stopped laughing to give me a funny look.

"Wanda, we live in the desert, of course I don't have a scarf. It'll be fine, no one will notice."

"I doubt that," I muttered. "You obviously haven't met Jared."

Ian chuckled and came to stand in front of me, moving my hair around.

"There, just leave it like that and no one will notice."

"How will they not see it? It's the size of... of. I don't know, but it's huge!" I threw my hands up in the air and Ian took them in his own; lacing them together.

"Please don't worry about a thing, Wanda. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I'll be the butt end of their jokes for awhile, is all."

"What do you mean?" I asked; looking at our hands clasped together.

"Well, you certainly can't give yourself a hickey, so they'll rightly assume that I was the one who gave you it. I'll never hear the end of it, but you don't see me fretting about it, do you?"

I shook my head and smiled.

"Good," Ian kissed my lips again before pulling away and putting my hair back in place. "You're beautiful no matter what, Wanda. You have nothing to worry about."

I blushed at his statement and threw my arms around him.

"Now what do you say that we leave this room and go get that food?" Ian suggested and I nodded enthusiastically.

"Let's go," I agreed and we made our way out of the room.

Once we reached the main room, I began playing with my hair and became very nervous.

"Ian, are you sure it's covered?"

"Wanda, you look perfect; I can't even see it," Ian replied, brushing the bangs out of my face.

"Now, you won't mind if I go to the washroom while you grab a spot in the kitchen, do you?" I was shaking my head before he even finished his question. "I thought so," Ian chuckled.

"What about Kyle though?" I whispered.

"Kyle won't bother you," Ian replied shaking his head. "With his nose broken like that, he'll have gone straight to Doc. I can almost guarantee that Doc will keep him there until his anger subsides, which might take awhile."

"If you're sure," I replied and he nodded.

"I'm so sure. Now go on, get us a good seat."

Ian pushed me gently in the direction of the kitchen while he turned and headed the other way, whistling. How he could whistle after he had just broken his brother's nose was beyond me. I was still distraught after what Kyle had said about Sunny and I, and seeing Ian injure Kyle didn't help much. With a deep breath, I set off to the kitchen.

I walked in and saw Jared waving me over to where he was sitting alone with a lot of food out in front of him.

"Wow, that's a lot to eat, even for you," I teased as I sat down across from him, grabbing a roll.

"It's not all for me, you know. Mel asked me to come down and save us all a table," he replied, grinning up at me.

"Where is she? And everyone else?" I asked, taking a roll and biting into it.

"She's cleaning our room, claiming that it looks like a nuclear bomb blew up in it," he answered, rolling his eyes. "Jamie had to go to his class earlier to do his detention, because we need him for something tonight, and I haven't seen Kyle or Sunny yet."

I looked down at my roll at the mention of Kyle.

"I heard he had to go see Doc," I offered, not wanting to go into great detail about it.

"Someone deck him again?" Jared asked, still smiling.

"Something like that," I mumbled.

Jared nodded and ripped into his own roll as I took another bite.

"Well since it's just you and me for right now, what do you think about this raid?"

"What raid?" I asked, crinkling up my brows.

Jared cocked his head to the side. "Ian didn't tell you about it?"

I shook my head. "No, he didn't mention it."

I knew that this was what they were talking about earlier, but I wanted to hear Jared pitch the idea.

"Well it's time for another raid, you know, and I want to go out as soon as possible, so I was going to get you and Ian, Mel, myself, and try to talk Sunny and Kyle into coming out as well."

I nodded, taking another bite.

"What do we need?" I asked.

"Everything, really. We're evidently low on food supplies," Jared said, motioning to the rolls and crackers that were on the table. "We also need some more cryotanks and healing equipment for Doc if we want to start extracting all these souls."

I frowned at that one. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if we want to get our planet back, we have to start getting these souls out fast; the longer we wait, the harder it will be. So this time we're going to bring back as many of these human soul people as we can and start setting the wheels to this plan in motion."

"The thing is that we need to leave right away, to get started as soon as possible. You know how it kills Doc to wait around for us to bring back someone new. In order to make this work, I want us to leave by dawn tomorrow so that we still have the cover of the night with us when we leave."

I nodded absentmindedly and took another bite.

"Are you in, Wanda? Are you going to come?" Jared asked; his voice full of hope.

I thought back to the conversation that Jared and Ian had earlier, Ian making it very clear that he did not want me to participate at all in this raid. I looked up at Jared and his face that seemed almost pleading and expecting my answer. A part of me couldn't resist him, but a part of me didn't want to anger Ian by agreeing to go out.

"Wanda?" Jared asked.

I thought about the situation, and realized that they needed me to go out still. We would have to get Sunny to toughen up to go out with us, so that I could please Ian in the future and not have to go out on so many raids. But for right now, they still needed me.

"Of co-" I started to say, but I was interrupted by another voice.

"Absolutely not."

I whipped around in my seat to see Ian standing in the doorway with his arms crossed in front of him; glaring at Jared, his face looking murderous.

**I have decided that I will make Sunday my updating day. It just seems to end up that way, so now I'm just making it official! **

**I had this really strange dream last night. It included the cast from Twilight minus Kristen Stewart and we were on a field trip. I don't remember a lot of details, but I remember I was holding Alice on my hip as she was crying and screaming at Jasper about how he broke her. It was pretty odd.  
Review! : )**


	5. Decisions

**A/N: Holy Cannoli!!! 14 reviews for that last chapter! That's like a record for me!! Wow! I want to truly thank each and every one of you! I have been individually replying to your reviews, but I still can't thank you enough! So instead, I decided to give you another chapter! : )  
I know that a lot of you commented on how you weren't expecting Kyle to still be that way now, and were a bit shocked at his outburst, but I feel that Kyle would still have those emotions pent up inside him; even if he doesn't show it. I think that Kyle would still feel angry towards the souls for taking away his Jodi from him; it would be a normal, human reaction to still feel angst towards the souls for taking away the one that he loved the most. I also believe that if Jodi was ever found, he wouldn't ship Sunny off; he has grown to love her whether he recognizes it or not, just on a different level than his love for Jodi. I hope that clears some of that up.**

**Thanks to Morgan R. Lovesky, vanilfrappe, shouvley, hearts-4-stars, mcena99, Midnight Sapphire Eyes, ShowChika, MrsCullen23, Forever Your Angel, All The Good Names Taken and vampire's kisses 4 me for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**WPOV**

"Ian," I stared to apologize, but the look he gave me silenced my voice immediately.

"I specifically told you not to talk to her," Ian spat at Jared.

Jared rose from the table and walked over before stopping in front of Ian, crossing his arms and mirroring Ian's position.

"I complied with your earlier request; I did not ask her right then, I waited until later, like I said I would."

Ian actually growled then and took a step closer.

"I didn't want you to talk to her at all," Ian said.

"Well then you should have specified that, shouldn't you? You never gave me a specific time that was allotted to 'later'," Jared scoffed.

I could see Ian's temper flaring and his face was steadily becoming redder and redder.

"She's not going anyways," he said with finality. "Are you, Wanda?"

Jared and Ian turned to me to hear my response. I froze and thought it over in my head several times; thought about who I was going to be hurting depending on my answer. The outcomes weren't the best, either way; one of them was going to be angry at me. I chose my words carefully.

"Well, I think that I'm okay and all; and I don't see why-"

Again, I was cut off by Ian.

"She doesn't know what she's thinking right now; her fainting episodes have muddled her thoughts."

"Ian, she's coming with us, deal with it," Jared said.

"She is not. I was the one appointed to look after her, and I believe that she is not well enough to go out; I believe that I outlined the reasons as to why earlier."

"I didn't realize I needed someone appointed to look after me," I said to Ian. "If it's such a burden to you, why bother?"

Ian let out an exasperated sigh. "Wanda, that's not what I mean. I offered to look after you after yesterday, and watching over you, I don't believe that it would help you at all to go out. You know I didn't mean it like that."

I nodded and Jared laughed gruffly.

"Well, Wanda has tried to tell me twice that she wants to come out with us, so I don't see why we just don't grant her wish? I see nothing wrong with it," Jared said to Ian.

"Why does it always have to be Wanda, Jared? You've let Mel stay behind on her fair share of raids, why can't you let Wanda?" Ian began to raise his voice and was almost yelling at Jared.

"Mel hasn't gone out of a few raids because it isn't safe for her. The first few times she didn't know the protocol that we had adapted since we accepted Wanda into our lives and it was safer for her to stay here, rather than have her go out and get caught or something," Jared retorted.

"That's a lame excuse," Ian said to Jared coldly. "In case you have forgotten, Wanda was in Mel's body and Mel was fully aware of what was happening; she was plenty capable of going out with us in the beginning. Plus, your stupid excuse doesn't explain the few that she's been missing lately at all."

Jared took a step closer. "Are you insinuating that I'm taking advantage of Wanda so that I can keep Mel safe?"

Ian took a step towards Jared also. "Maybe I am. What are you going to do about it?"

I saw what was coming before it even happened. Jared's hand formed a fist and as his arm came back to hit Ian, I ran towards them, jumping between them as he released the punch and absorbed the impact in my left shoulder. I could hear a scream, but tuned it out.

"Wanda!" Ian choked out and instantly wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me towards him.

"Jared," Mel yelled out to him as she stormed angrily towards Jared, who was standing there, his eyes as wide as saucers. Mel reached him and smacked his arm. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I...I didn't mean to hit her. I didn't see her coming," Jared finally said.

"I don't care if you didn't mean to hit her; you were going to hurt Ian instead. That's not okay. I swear, what has gotten into you lately? Sneaking off this morning and disappearing and now you're attacking Ian and Wanda?"

"Mel, it's not like that at all, really."

"Oh, really? Then you'd better start explaining yourself then," she said angrily, tapping her foot against the floor.

Ian spun me around in his arms so that I was facing him.

"Wanda, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

I shook my head and tried to ignore the stinging sensation in my left shoulder. Ian glared at me and lifted up my sleeve to see for himself.

"Ian, it's fine, really," I pleaded with him until the material moved, showing the large purple bruise that was starting to form under the skin. I winced as Ian's finger grazed over the skin lightly and he yelled towards the small crowd that had formed by the door for someone to get ice.

"Uh, Ian? We haven't had ice down here for a long time," Lilly said quietly and he swore.

"Well, can we get some cold water or something? Anything?" Lilly nodded before running off towards the back of the kitchen.

"Ian, it's fine," I started.

"You just need to stop the swelling, is all," Ian replied, kissing my forehead.

"Is there a reason why we would need to stop swelling on Wanda's body, Ian?" Jeb's voice echoed through the cave and everyone froze up.

Jeb looked at Ian and I and then at Mel and Jared; she was just in the middle of yelling at him and her hands were raised in the air, both their faces flushed. Lilly came back at that point and handed Ian a washcloth that he placed gently on my shoulder, the coldness making me involuntarily shiver. Jeb pointed at Jared, Ian and I before pointing his thumb towards the exit of the cave and turning to leave.

"Show's over, folks. I suggest that you get a move on with the day; we've still got planting to finish," Jeb said to everyone as they parted to let him through before entering the kitchen. Ian took my hand and followed Jeb while Mel swatted Jared's head and he followed after us.

We followed Jeb to the main room and everyone that we passed looked at us before continuing on with their day; apparently news travelled fast in these caves. Ian looked down at me and adjusted the cloth on my shoulder before giving my hand a gentle and reassuring squeeze. He then looked behind us and glared at Jared. Jeb grabbed one of the lamps off of someone before leading us on again and we eventually ended up in the games room.

Jeb sat down in the middle of the room with the lamp in front of him and I sat directly across from him. Ian huffed and sat down on my left, moving the cloth aside to look at the bruise; I didn't look and let him care for it. Jared sat down reluctantly on my other side and Jeb cleared his throat.

"What exactly is going on?"

At once, Jared and Ian launched into their own explanations of what happened, though it was impossible to hear either one of them as their loud voices echoed off the walls and ceiling. I held my forehead in my hands as they argued back and forth, wishing that I could tune out their voices. I hated how Jared and Ian seemed to hate each other at this moment and I just wanted it to stop.

Jeb must have been reading my mind, as he cleared his throat, effectively silencing Jared and Ian. I was not expecting what he said next.

"Wanda, what is going on here?"

I lifted my head out of my hands and gaped at Jeb. Ian completely froze at my side and Jared coughed uncomfortably.

"Wha...me?"

"Yes, since these two are just going to sit there and argue, and believe that what they have to say is right, I want to hear from you what is happening, from someone caught in the middle that has a completely unbiased opinion."

I had to hand it to Jeb; he knew just how to handle a situation effectively.

"Go on," he said to me and I nodded, clearing my throat.

I explained how Jared wanted me to go out on the raid really soon, though I couldn't say how soon without giving away the fact that I was eavesdropping this morning; yet how Ian didn't feel that I was healthy enough to go out at all.

"So what do you think, Wanda?" Jeb asked me and I thought about it for a second.

"I think that Ian is right; I don't trust myself enough right now to go out on another raid at this second." I saw Ian look over and smirk at Jared, but I wasn't finished speaking. "But I also think that Jared is right, that we need to go out as soon as we can, and I will be more willing and helpful to you if we go when I feel a little better; perhaps in the next few days. I don't want to set you back any more, but that's what I think," I concluded.

"That's the smartest answer I've heard yet," Jeb said, looking pointedly at my arm and then at Jared. "How many times do I have to tell you the violence doesn't solve anything, Jared?" Jeb shook his head. "I believe that Jared has it right, that we need to get this raid done fast; but I don't think that it should be done at the expense of one of the family. How would you feel if they were trying to drag out your Melanie against you will, Jared?"

"I'd fight for her like Ian is doing," he mumbled in defeat. "But I still think that this is wrong. You can see for yourself how desperate we are for a raid; and knowing Ian, he'll try and drag this out for more than it's worth! We'll never get out now!"

"Quit whining, Jared," Jeb instructed. "Yes, you're the practical one here, but now you're done a team member and besides, you need to prepare more for this. You need to go and visit with Kyle down in Doc's room."

"What? Why would Kyle be there?" Jared asked, looking confused.

"Well, since his nose has been reset," Jeb glared at Ian and he ducked his head, "he wants to go over the finer details of this raid you're planning."

"It's not going to be much of a raid unless we get moving!"

"Shut yer trap! I'm getting there! Wanda, what do you say to taking today off again and resting up so that you can all leave tomorrow morning? I'm saying tomorrow, as the sun has already come up today, so you have to wait for the cover of the night now."

I nodded and smiled at Jeb while Ian cried out, "No!"

"And why not Ian?" Jeb asked, crossing his arms.

"You seriously think that one day will cure her? She needs a few more than that, a week at least!" Ian protested.

"Well, I'm glad that you're so prepared to keep Wanda safe and make sure that she's fully recovered, but be serious, Ian. Look around you, we're all suffering, and we need this raid desperately. There's hardly enough food to go around, and then there's the fact that there's hardly enough soap! Everyone's refusing to make that old stuff that we used to use all the time, but they're going to have you, you lot included if you don't go out! Personally, I would hate to have to use it again."

I giggled and Jeb winked at me quickly.

"Now, Jared, off to Doc's room to finalize the plans. Ian, you can go down and join them after you've cooled off. Wanda, go back to your room and rest. You're leaving at the crack of yesterday, so rest up!"

We took that as Jeb's dismissal and the three of us stood to leave the cave. We walked in silence until we were around the corner and away from Jeb's ears.

"Look, I'm really sorry Wanda, and to you too, Ian. I never should have tried to pressure you guys into leaving like this, but it was inevitable. You can see how much we need to go out on this raid, and the two of you are vital members of our team; we can't do this without you," Jared apologized.

"I know, and I'm sorry for making you so upset," I said to him.

"Wanda, you didn't make me upset at all, you silly girl," Jared said, laughing and reaching out a hand to muss up my hair.

Ian stuck out his hand and Jared shook it.

"I'm sorry for earlier, Ian. I never should have yelled or tried to hit you or anything. You just frustrate me to no end sometimes, you know," Jared smiled and shook his head.

"I do it just for you, you know that Jared. I love getting you all riled up like that," Ian replied and shook my head.

"_Boys,_" I muttered under my breath.

"I meant what I said, Jared, as soon as you learn whatever you need to learn, she's not going out any more. There are plenty of others that could help you out if you give them the chance," Ian said to Jared and turned to walk away from him.

"I know, and I will respect that. I promise that this will be one of the last raids she goes out on."

"Gee, I just love it when you guys talk about me as if I'm not here," I said jokingly and started walking away. Ian chuckled and grabbed my wrist turning me around. I inhaled sharply as he yanked on it, bothering my bruise.

Jared grimaced. "I'm so sorry about that, Wanda. I never would have imagined that you would have stepped in between us at that second. I'm always going to regret that, you know."

"Good, maybe it'll knock some common sense into you," I said to him before Jared hugged me.

"Alright, I suppose I should be off to see your brother," Jared said, pulling away. "What happened to him, anyways?"

I looked away as Ian spoke up. "I broke his nose. He wasn't being incredibly hospitable towards Wanda or Sunny earlier, so I took care of that."

Jared laughed and turned to go to Doc's room, waving over his shoulder.

"Aren't you supposed to go down there too?" I asked as Ian put his arm around my shoulders and started leading us away.

"No, I'm supposed to go down there after I cool off. Between fighting with Kyle and then arguing with Jared like that, I'm in no shape to go down there. If anything, my temper would flare up again and Kyle would have more problems than a bloody nose."

"Ian!" I scolded.

"What? Kyle deserves it. He was being ridiculous earlier and needed a good hit; and if I didn't do it, someone was bound to."

I shook my head and we walked in silence the rest of the way back to our cave where he slid the red door away and we entered. Ian bounded over to the bed and launched himself from the foot of it, landing on his back with his head on the pillow and flung his arm across his eyes. I made my way over to the side of the bed and sat down on the floor beside him. Ian's fingers touched my hair and were soon stroking it gently; I rested my head back against the mattress and closed my eyes.

"Why are you sitting down on the cold floor, Wanda?"

"I'm actually not, I'm sitting on one of your shirts; not so cold." Ian chuckled. "I'm sitting on the floor because if I lay in the bed with you, I'll end up falling asleep."

He lifted the arm off his eyes and looked at me. I could sense his gaze on my face and opened my own eyes to look at him.

"What?"

"Is falling asleep such a bad thing?"

I giggled. "It could be."

Ian resumed running his fingers through my hair. "How so?"

"Every moment that I spend asleep, I'm not spending time with you," I replied.

Ian removed his hand from my hair and I could feel him moving on the mattress, but I closed my eyes again and figured that he was just getting into a more comfortable position. I jumped and my eyes flew open when I suddenly felt his hands gripping me under my shoulders and lifting me up.

"What are you doing?" I asked and he shushed me.

Once I was up high enough for his liking and my butt was almost level with the top of the mattress; he quickly snaked one of his arms around my waist and pulled me closer so that I was sitting beside him on the bed.

"Don't think about that; you're always with me, whether it is when I'm awake or when I'm asleep. You're always spending time with me," Ian whispered to me, nuzzling his face in my hair.

"Sleeping seems like such a waste of time though," I commented. "We should be spending every second of every day awake. You never know what could happen; our time together could be limited already."

Ian covered his mouth with his lips. Once he removed them, he began to talk, "Wanda, stop talking like that. You're talking as if you know that something is going to happen, and I don't like that. Stop thinking about what _could_ happen and think about what is happening right now. Are we being ambushed right now and ripped from these caves?"

I shook my head.

"You see? There's nothing to worry about then," Ian kissed my forehead before looking into my eyes.

"Aren't you worried that today could be our last day together; that tomorrow could go horribly wrong and we would never see each other again?"

"Wanda, seriously, I'm begging you to stop it. You don't need to worry about these things; I certainly don't. Wanda, with all these people with us who are on the lookout and in patrol in hidden locations, we aren't liable to be invaded any time. The caves are the safest they have been since we all arrived here. You have nothing to worry about, my Wanda," Ian pulled me into a hug and crushed my small frame against his large chest.

I smiled a little and tried to forget about it. Ian had a tendency of knowing just how to talk me out of whatever bad thing I was thinking of and making me forget about it. I allowed Ian just to hold me as he whispered sweet words in my ear. Each time his breath ticked my ear, I smiled a little wider, and my stomach was overcome with a serious case of the butterflies. I made a mental note to ask Mel if this was normal, even after all the time that Ian and I spent together.

Ian finally pressed his warm lips to my own and they began to move on their own accord; it was like my brain and my lips had seceded and were thinking for themselves. He returned the kiss, but soon broke away chuckling a little.

"Didn't we learn from this morning?" he asked jokingly.

"Doesn't matter, it doesn't make me want to kiss you any less," I replied rather boldly and the proceeded to blush and duck my head so that my blonde hair made a veil over my face.

Ian laughed out loud before reaching out and pushing my hair back from my face to cup my cheek.

"Don't hide, Wanda, it was nothing to be ashamed of."

"Sure it was."

Ian shook his head and brought my lips up to meet his quickly before pulling away. He kissed my forehead one last time before lying down on his back and pulling me down to lie with him. Ian tucked me into his right side and I rested my head on his chest.

"Go to sleep, my Wanda. When you wake I will be right here. I will always be right here."

Soon after, I was fast asleep in a dreamless state.

I woke up to a gentle shaking and groaned. I heard Ian's deep voice chuckle.

"Not too willing to wake up, are we?"

I grumbled a muffled response that was lost in his shirt and he shook me gently again. I finally raised my head to look at him.

"Is there a reason that you're waking me up so early?"

Ian sighed and kissed my cheek.

"I really don't mean to, but Jared just came by and they want me to go down and finalize the list of things that they've compiled to get on the raid. It won't take long, but I couldn't leave you here to wake up alone; I promised that I would be here when you woke up, and I wasn't about to break that promise."

My heart soared and started beating a mile a minute as he said those words to me and I could feel a goofy grin spreading over my face.

"What did I do to deserve someone like you?" I asked Ian before kissing his nose.

"Wanda, I ask myself the same question about you every day."

I sighed. "Alright, I suppose I can't keep you here much longer."

I sat up and stretched, my shirt riding up a tiny bit and revealing a sliver of my skin. I felt Ian's fingers grazing said sliver of skin and I smiled.

"You know, I wouldn't be opposed to you keeping me here longer," he whispered, sitting up and I couldn't help the blush that painted my cheeks.

Just then Jared poked his head in the door.

"Ian, let's go."

Ian sighed heavily before standing up beside the bed and leaning in to kiss the top of my head.

"I'm sorry, this won't take too long."

"I know, don't worry about it. I'll be fine," I replied, watching him leave.

Ian gave me one last parting smile before ducking out into the hallway and sliding the door shut.

I sighed and flopped back down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. I always hated the day before a raid; everyone the caves seemed to be extra quiet and hardly any one spoke. Everyone always feared that someone wouldn't return. The mood in the caves were always solemn whenever we went out, Sunny told me once, and they never improved until we returned to the caves with the same number of people that we went out with.

Just then I heard the scraping of the door and frowned, wondering who it could be, as it wasn't nearly time for Ian to be back. To my surprise, Mel stuck her head in and grinned before retreating into the hall and stepping into the room holding on to Sunny's wrist, tugging her along.

"I had to drag her away from Kyle," Mel explained as they both sat down beside me on the mattress. "She wouldn't leave his side for anything."

"Well, you saw him, he is injured. I can't stand to just leave him there, but he insisted and Mel was too persistent this time," Sunny said, trying to defend herself.

"Have you seen Kyle?" Mel asked.

"Not recently why?"

She giggled. "You should. I would like to shake the hand of whoever did a number on him; he must have said something incredible stupid to warrant a broken nose and a shiner like that."

Sunny smacked Mel's arm, which just caused her to laugh harder.

"Sunny, if you're going to hit someone, you've got to mean it," she said through her peals of laughter.

"I can't bring myself to cause anyone harm though," Sunny said.

"A small smack to Mel's arm isn't going to cause any permanent damage, you know," to emphasize my point, I hit Melanie in the arm and she stopped laughing. "And it was Ian."

"I knew it," Mel said. "It had 'Ian' written all over it. Wonder what he did to cause Ian to hit him..." she said, looking at me.

"What makes you think I know what happened?"

"Oh, come on. You're always attached to Ian at the hip the day before a raid, we all know that. So obviously you know what happened to make Ian punch Kyle."

I laughed as Mel lay beside me on her stomach, holding her head in her hands and looking up at me expectantly, like she was twelve and waiting for the latest gossip about something.

"Is it really that obvious?" I asked.

"Yes! Now quit stalling and tell us!"

I looked up at Sunny who was sitting on the edge of the bed on the other side of Mel. I knew that telling the story would upset her, as she hated anything to do with violence, and doubly hated anything to do with violence and Kyle in the same sentence. Surprisingly, she gave me a small nod. I raised my eyebrows at her and she nodded her head again.

"Well, Ian and I were.... well, we were..." I was blushing just thinking about what we were doing, and couldn't seem to spit it out.

"Were you having wild and crazy sex?" That was Mel for you, always the blunt one, not afraid to say what's on her mind.

My jaw nearly hit the mattress below as it flew open. "No!"

"Then you won't mind telling us, spit it out."

"Well....." Mel reached over and slapped me. "Ow! We were kissing and I sort of didn't have my shirt on...." I looked to the side as I blushed a lot.

"Alright, we got it. Things were getting a little hot and heavy in here, then what happened?" Mel asked, growing impatient.

"So we were... yeah," the blush still hadn't left my face and I refused to make eye contact with either Mel or Sunny. "When Kyle just bursts through the door and finds us, well, you know. He really came to tell us that that Jeb wanted Ian for something, but then he ah...."

"What did he say, Wanda?" Mel asked quietly.

"He... well. Made reference to me being a soul, and...yeah." I didn't really want to go into the details as Sunny was in the room and Kyle had said some really mean things about her as well. I didn't want to be the one to say it.

"He said that he could never bring himself to love a soul; that he could never stoop that low. He said that if he could have it his way, this would be Jodi sitting here and I would be halfway to another galaxy aboard a ship by now. He said that he could never love me, and said that it would be better if Wanda and I had just met the same fate as those other souls that you tried to extract before. He called us scum and worms and told Ian that Wanda must have him brainwashed if he says that he loves her."

Mel and I gawked at Sunny as she perfectly recalled what happened between Kyle and Ian. Sunny looked down at the floor and fiddled with the sheet between her fingers.

"Oh Sunny! That's horrible!" Mel sat up and wrapped her arms around Sunny, pulling her into a huge hug.

"How did you know?" I whispered to Sunny and she finally looked up at me.

"I was outside the door when he said it, Wanda. I know I shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but I was looking for Kyle and I heard shouting and screaming and came to see what was happening. Then I heard Kyle speaking and kept quiet outside the door and listened to what he had to say. He said some pretty awful things about you, Wanda. Anyways, when I heard him coming out I ran down the hall further and waited until you were all gone before I came out."

I moved over and cradled her head against my chest as she wept into my shirt. I had no idea that Sunny was in the hall and listening the whole time. To hear Kyle say things like that to me meant nothing; I knew how much he disliked the souls, me in particular, but for Sunny to hear it coming from him had to break her heart.

When I was in Mel's body, it was no secret to anyone that Jared wanted me dead almost immediately upon meeting me, but for Sunny, Kyle had been nothing but nice towards her. Sure, he tried to push her to find Jodi a lot, but he was still kind and soft and reassuring that everything was just fine.

"W...what I don't get is why he... he's so cruel to you, Wanda? What did you ever do wrong?" Sunny asked between her tears.

"I showed up, really. Well, Mel's body showed up with me inside of it. He never believed that I should have been allowed to stay here, even after everyone else had accepted me as part of the community, it's really nothing new, Sunny," I explained.

Sunny pulled away from us. "He has no right to be angry with you. Look at all the things that you have done for the caves, and this is how he repays you?"

"You should tell her," Mel said to me softly.

"Tell me what?" Sunny demanded.

"No, I don't think..."

"Tell me," Sunny interrupted and I sighed.

"Well, once everything sort of settled down regarding me staying here in Mel's body, Kyle still didn't feel the same way as everyone else and well.... he decided to take matters into his own hands."

I wasn't going to continue, as Sunny's eyes were as wide as saucers, but she nodded for me to continue.

"Well we were down in the bathroom and Kyle ambushed us and tried to drown us by holding our head down in that stream down there. He let go, and I don't remember the exact details, but he gave us a deep muscle bruise in the process and hurt us real bad. Then he tried to push us into the hot springs that are in there, but we grabbed on to him as the floor gave way or something and he ended up knocking himself unconscious in the process."

I felt bad telling her all these things, but she wanted to know, and I can't exactly deny her this sort of information.

"This happened awhile ago, Sunny, Kyle has certainly changed," Mel said, trying to reassure her.

"I heard what he said, Mel, he certainly hasn't.

"He hasn't towards me, "I said. "That doesn't mean he hasn't changed towards you. We can see the way that he looks at you, Sunny. He is in love with _you_. Sure, he may love Jodi too, but right now he is all consumed with you."

"You really think so?" Sunny asked shyly.

I looked sideways at Mel and we both smiled. "I really do think so, Sunny."

"What if Kyle tries to harm you though? Or me?"

"He won't Sunny; he's not allowed to hurt Wanda, and he would never harm you," Mel stated.

"If he hurts me, they will kick him out; it's already been decided," I informed her. "I don't dwell on the possibility, Sunny, and neither should you."

We were all silent for a minute, thinking over these details before Mel spoke up again.

"I have the most fantastic idea!" she clapped her hands together and bounced on the mattress.

"What is it?" I asked sceptically.

Mel turned to Sunny before answering. "You need to come out on this raid with us!"

"Oh, I don't know about that," Sunny started, but Mel cut her off.

"It's perfect! You need to get yourself out of the cave; see the world out there, you know. Kyle also needs to get out and clear his head; being stuck in here is doing him no good."

"I wouldn't be much help though," Sunny protested.

"Sure you would!" Mel was on a roll, and I wasn't about to cut her off anytime soon. "You lived out in the real world for a little while! You would know all there is to know! With you and Wanda out with us, we could accomplish bigger and better things! Just think of the possibilities!"

"Mel, I really don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not?" Melanie glared at Sunny and placed her hands on her hips. "Sunlight Passing Through the Ice, I will not take no for an answer. You will either come out with us or you will sit in here and have to do some kind of disgustingly gross duty that I have yet to think of. Don't make me think of one," she threatened.

Sunny thought about the proposal before looking up at me. I couldn't do anything but offer her a small smile; this was her decision to make, not anyone else's.

"Fine, you win. I'll go out on this one. You hear me, this _one; _and Kyle has to come."

Mel jumped up, pulling Sunny and I with her to jump on the bed, laughing.

"Yeah, yeah; you say that now, but once you get out there, you'll see. It's different with us; and we promise not to get you lost or anything. Plus, you know that Kyle wouldn't let you go out without him," Mel yelled.

"Lost?" Sunny stopped jumping at once and was still, her face filled with fear.

"Relax, Sunny," I said to her. "Do you honestly think that we're going to lose you? Do you think that low of Mel and Kyle and I that we would let that happen?"

She shook her head and smiled."I'm coming out with you guys! I never thought that this would happen, but I suppose it's inevitable. You've all been bugging me for so long that I had to cave."

"I'll go tell Jared, I guess," I offered. "He needs to know that we've got two more coming."

Mel just nodded and jumped off the bed. "I have to get going. We need to clean our room before we leave. Want to help, Sunny?"

"I'd kind of just like to see Kyle, check up on him, you know," she offered shyly.

"Psh, he'll be fine. It's not like it's the first time his nose has been broken," Mel said, pulling Sunny from the room, her eyes wide again.

"What do you mean," I could hear her ask as they went down the hall.

I giggled to myself before heading off to find Jared; I thought that the most likely place to find him would be in the kitchen, so I set off in that direction. I could hardly believe that Sunny agreed to go out on this raid with us. She must be getting braver than I though.

"_Well, sort of_," I mused, she would still only talk to Mel, Kyle and I, but at least it was a start.

**10 more days until the Twilight movie comes out! Anyone excited! I am; I've already got my ticket and everything : ) Also, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Rachelle Lefevre are coming to a local tv station near me for an interview thing, but I'm not able to get down there on Tuesday to get wristbands to go to the show next Saturday! I'm so disappointed!**

**Who thinks that The Host should be made in to a movie?  
*Raises hand up high*  
Review!**


	6. Details

**A/N: 14 more reviews for that last chapter! I seriously cannot thank you all enough! I love you all! Truly! : ) We're rapidly approaching 50 reviews for this story and I'm like in heaven! I've been replying individually to each and every one of the reviews, but I have no idea if it's working or not! :P **

**Thanks to mcena99, twilightluver0309, vampire's kisses 4 me, shouvley, hearts-4-stars, vanilfrappe, Nanasawa-san140, ATGNT, SeanEmma4Evr, 23, EdwardAlways, TopazEyesForever and xXxCherryBlossomxXx for your wonderfully fantasmagorific (was made up by my Great-Grandmother... is means fantastic, magical and terrific all rolled into one!) reviews!!! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

I left my room shortly after Mel and Sunny tore out of it in the direction of Mel and Jared's room, looking for Jared, but I knew that Ian, Kyle and Jeb would also be with him. I still couldn't believe that Sunny had agreed to come along with us. I knew that she was really only coming because she felt that she had to prove her worth to Kyle; and I didn't want her to have to go to such lengths, she really didn't have to.

I just wished that she could see how much Kyle loved her, that this wasn't necessary, but once Sunny got an idea in her head, she was surprisingly determined. If only Sunny had known Kyle before she came to the caves, and was able to witness his violent tendencies; only then would she be able to see the changes in him. If only she could see the changes in him that had occurred because of his obvious love for Sun, not just Jodi.

I had decided to look for Jared and them in the kitchen, but when I arrived it was empty, save the few people who were in the back preparing for the next meal. To my great pleasure, I noticed Lacey in the back, whining over something and examining her fingernails. I giggled and left the kitchen quickly. The next likely place to look for them would be Doc's room, which was probably where I should have looked, considering that Kyle was currently being held in there. I crossed the main room again and waved to Lilly, Trudy and Brandt before heading down the hall to Doc's room.

As I closer, I could hear raised voices echoing down the hall. Frowning, I stopped and pressed myself up against the rock hard walls to listen in; making sure that I was still around the corner so they wouldn't know that I was there.

"Wanda is coming on this raid, yes, but that doesn't mean you're to use and abuse her!" Ian's voice echoed clearly through the caves.

"I'm not 'using and abusing' her! Are you insane?" Jared yelled back. "I'm just trying o be as quick and efficient as possible!"

"Right, according to your standards," Ian snorted. "Has it ever occurred to you that Wanda is only human, just like the rest of us?!"

I heard someone snigger and immediately assumed that it was Kyle.

"Shut up, Kyle," Ian shouted, confirming my assumptions. "What I'm saying is that you can't push her all the time. She needs rest! She needs downtime! I see no space for that on here!"

The sound of crinkling paper was heard followed by the sound of it hitting the floor.

"I just want to get this raid done quickly and efficiently, as I've told you countless times now," Jared replied.

"At what cost!" Ian shouted as something was knocked to the floor.

"Ian," Jeb said in a warning voice.

Ian sighed before speaking. "All I'm saying is that I need you to respect Wanda; she is not your personal robot or whatever. You need to remember that! We got along just fine before she came to us, so now why are you all of a sudden so dependent on her?"

"He does have a point..." Jeb muttered.

"But we need her, is all I'm trying to say," Jared supplied.

"Do we? Do we really? Or is it just you?" Ian fumed.

"All I can say is that I'm glad that Jo-Sunny isn't going out," Kyle said clearly.

I decided to step in at this point, to break the news to everyone, including Kyle at once. There was no point holding off any longer.

I stepped out and around the corner so that I was in plain view. Acting on instinct, I crossed my arms in front of my body as a measure to protect myself. Jared was facing the entrance and his eyes bugged out of his head when he saw me standing there.

Ian must have noticed Jared's face, for he slowly turned to look at whatever he was looking at. When Ian's eyes met mine, all the anger in his face disappeared and it turned into shock. I blushed and looked away, feeling uncomfortable that they had stopped talking because of my presence.

I heard four quick footsteps before and then felt two strong arms wrap around me. I looked up, startled only to see Ian's chest looming in front of me. Ian pulled me closer, holding me tight, and I rested my head on his chest.

"How much of that did you hear?" he whispered, kissing the top of my head.

"Enough," I whispered back.

"Don't listen to him, whatever you do," Ian pleaded with me. "You don't have to do anything that he tells you to."

"I know."

Someone cleared their throat at that point, probably Jeb, and I started to pull out of his embrace, but Ian's iron grip held me in place.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I said, giving him one last tight squeeze.

I stepped out from behind him, but Ian stayed by my side with his arm securely wrapped around my tiny waist.

"I actually just came here to tell you that two more people will be joining us on this raid."

Jeb cocked his head to the side. "Who might that be?"

I looked away before mumbling, "Mel and Sunny."

"_Excuse me?"_ Kyle asked, incredulously. "I don't believe I heard you properly."

I took a deep breath. "I said, Mel and Sunny will be joining us on this raid."

Jared rolled his eyes and sighed. "I knew Mel wouldn't give up on that," he said simply.

Kyle however, had a completely different reaction. I didn't really know how it happened, but I felt a hand on both of my shoulders and I was being violently shaken. I looked up and briefly saw Kyle's face full of anger before he was being tackled to the ground by Ian.

I stood there with my mouth gaping open at the sight in front of me.

"Come have a seat, Wanda," Jeb said to me, patting Doc's chair that he had pulled up beside him.

"I....but he... they," I stuttered, looking wide eyed at the spectacle in front of me.

"It's under control," Jeb shrugged.

I shook my head, but took a seat all the same, watching as Jared bent down and pulled Ian off of Kyle before shoving him back against the wall. Jared forced Kyle down on the nearest bed and stood between the two brothers with his arms crossed in front of his chest, glaring at them both.

"What _is_ it with you two today," Jared asked, but no one answered.

"Now Wanda, what made Mel and Sunny decide that they needed to go on the raid?" Jeb asked, turning to look at me.

"Well, you know Mel, it's no secret that she wants to go out on any raid that she can, and seeing as how she missed the last one," I looked pointedly at Jared, who looked away, "I guess she's making up for it with this one."

"What about Sunny? It isn't like her to exclaim that she is coming with us," Jeb asked again.

"Well, there's sort of a bit of.... motivation behind Sunny's decision. She... a... she wants to prove her worth, I suppose you could say."

Everyone in the room frowned at that.

"Why would she want to do that?" Kyle asked, glaring at me.

"I... well... she sort of..." I trailed off, looking at the floor not able to answer Kyle.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see Ian take a few steps forward before Jared stopped him.

"Chill out, Jared, I'm going to stand with Wanda, if that's alright with you."

Jared sighed and let him pass, and went to stand beside Kyle instead.

Ian, true to his word, came and stood beside me, taking my right hand in his left and gently squeezing it.

"Sunny overheard your conversation with us earlier, Kyle. She heard everything you said to us about souls, and how you wished that she wasn't here. That's why she wants to come along. That's why she thinks that she has to prove her worth to us, because she heard you saying horrible, horrible things about her."

Kyle made to jump up and run towards me, but Jared pushed him back down as Ian stepped in front of me.

"That's not true! She's lying! Sunny never could have heard that! She wasn't anywhere near there!" Kyle shouted from behind Jared.

I rolled the chair out from behind Ian so that I could see his face. "Well you know what? It is true, whether you like it or not. Now she knows _exactly_ how you feel about the souls, and she's not that happy about it either."

"But I would never... she wasn't meant to hear that!"

"Well she did, so you'd better do something about it," Ian snapped.

"I always knew your words would come back to bit you in the ass someday," Jeb muttered, but I caught it and tried hard not to smile.

Kyle's face was livid; the redness of his angry face was clashing with his black eye and making his face even more distorted than it normally should have been.

"It's lying," he said through clenched teeth.

'I am not!" I practically shouted in frustration. "You can go see for yourself! She's in Jared and Mel's cave helping her get ready," I added.

Kyle growled before launching himself up off the bed and sprinting towards the door. Jeb sighed and started after him.

"I suppose I should follow him just to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Jeb said to us.

"Take your gun," Ian suggested and I gasped.

"Ian!"

Jeb chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Wanda. How's your shoulder by the way?" He then turned and left the room chasing after Kyle.

Ian turned to face me and lifted up the sleeve of my top to look at my arm. He shook his head and gently traced a finger lightly over the bruised skin.

"I'm still sorry about this," he apologized, kissing it lightly before pulling the sleeve back down.

"It's fine, Ian. You don't need to apologize for it," I tried assuring him.

"It was my fault though. It's always my fault that you get hurt like this."

I covered his mouth with my hand.

"Stop. Stop blaming yourself. It was not your fault in the least; I stepped in between you guys, I can deal with the pain."

Ian sighed. "I'm going to get you some more cool water for it; we've got to start healing it."

"Can't I just take some Heal or something? There's got to be a can around here."

Both Ian and Jared shook their heads.

"That's what I've been telling you, Wanda. We're completely out," Jared explained.

I frowned. "How can we be completely out of Heal? I thought we grabbed a whole case the last time?"

"We did, and we've gone through it already," Jared said and I shook my head.

"Wanda, I'm going to go get that for you, stay right here, okay?" Ian asked and I nodded my head.

He smiled at me a little before turning and walking out of the cave.

As soon as Ian had left, I got up out of the chair and began going through all the store cupboards around the room to see just exactly what we had left. I went through four empty cupboards before stepping away.

"This is bad," I commented.

"You see? This is why we need to go out so bad; that's what I've been telling everyone," Jared said to me, coming to stand beside me.

"I believe it now, but Doc doesn't let people go through his cupboards and see for themselves, you know," I said to Jared, lifting my blonde hair up off my neck for a second to try and cool it down.

"Well, I've taken a complete inventory of everything and compiled a nice list, so that part should be easy," Jared said. "But there's something that isn't on the list, and I need you help to get it."

I turned to face Jared, curious now.

"What might that be?"

"Contraceptives."

I nearly choked on nothing as Jared gave his answer.

"I... you want what?"

"You heard me," he replied.

I turned my head to the side, trying to hide the blush that was painting my cheeks.

"It's not just me who wants them, you know. I've had quite a few people ask me, as of lately, and I just don't know where to find it," Jared explained. "Evidently you and Ian need some too, so that you aren't sporting those huge marks on your neck from holding back."

My jaw dropped open in shock and I immediately let go of my hair, letting it fall back into place wherever it fell, brushing the bangs out of my face and turning completely away. My face was very hot and I knew that it would take a blush of this intensity awhile to soften. Ian returned at this moment, so I couldn't reply.

"Wanda, I've got this cool cloth, that's all I could find, I hope that's alright," Ian said to me as he crossed the room to move the material out of the way before placing it on my shoulder. "You should have seen Lacey's face when I asked her to get some cool water," he chuckled. "It was priceless. You know how she hates touching cold water."

I giggled and felt the coldness seeping into my skin.

"Come on, Wanda, let's get out of here, we've got some things to get done," Ian said to me and I rose to my feet, silently praying that the blush had left my face.

Ian didn't notice anything as he turned to face me before taking my small hand in his and starting to lead us from the room. Jared raised his eyebrow at me and I nodded, agreeing to find him what he wanted. The only problem was that I didn't know where they kept it.

Souls generally didn't reproduce, and liked to keep the population closely monitored, so you had to get permission to have a child so that the Healer's could keep a close eye on the child and insert a soul into it at the right age. As a result, the souls had to see their family Healer for contraceptives to monitor the situation. I knew they had to be kept somewhere, I just didn't know where.

Ian must have noticed that I was quiet, but he didn't say anything until we got back to our room, which is where we spent the majority of our time before we went out on raids. Ian gently sat me down on the edge of the mattresses before kneeling in front of me and placing his hands on my knees.

"Wanda, what's bothering you? You usually aren't this quiet."

"I'm... I'm just thinking, about... this room. It's such a mess," I said to him, looking up.

He chuckled. "Wanda, you're such a bad liar. Come on now, it can't be that bad; you can tell me anything in the whole world, you know?"

"I know." I took a deep breath before actually answering his question. "I was just thinking about something that Jared asked me to get, and I'm trying to decide how to get it." Ian raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm serious, that's what's bothering me."

"What did he ask you to get, Wanda? You know that you don't have to do it just for him."

"I know I don't, but it's not just for him either; it would be for everyone."

Ian tilted his head to the side. "What is it Wanda?"

'It's... ahh..." Just thinking of my task made me blush a deep shade of red.

"Wanda?"

"It's... they're... contraceptives," I whispered quietly, but he caught it.

"Oh."

"Yeah." I shifted uncomfortably on the bed and ducked my head forward creating a curtain of hair in front of my face.

We were silent for a few minutes before Ian spoke.

"I guess it wouldn't be just for him then."

I nodded in response.

"Wanda, you don't have to hide," Ian said to me softly, lifting my hair out of my face and pushing it over my shoulder. "It's not something to be ashamed of. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone asked that of you."

"I know. It's just... uncomfortable. Neither Pet nor I have had any sort of experience with _that_, so I don't even know where to begin. I mean, I suppose it's important, you know... but... yeah."

I ducked my head again and blushed, but Ian put a finger on my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. I kept my eyes averted, unable to look at him while discussing this current topic.

"Wanda, look at me," Ian instructed.

I finally looked up at Ian and saw that he was looking at me with a loving expression; he didn't seem to be overly embarrassed about this situation.

"I know this may seem embarrassing to you-"

"Yes, but why isn't it to you?" I countered before he could even finish.

Ian sighed and pulled on my wrists gently, so that I slid off the mattress and onto his lap. He tucked me into his left side so that my shoulder was exposed to keep the cloth on it; not that it was very cool any more.

"I just... I don't know, Wanda. Maybe because it doesn't surprise me as much as it does to you. I don't know. But you know what? It shouldn't be embarrassing to you. At least people are taking precautions with this, and not creating babies left, right and center. I know for a fact that a lot of people have been wanting it for a long time, it's just that Jared is the one with the balls to ask you."

I rested my head on his broad shoulder while he talked. Ian's hand had snaked around and laced his fingers with mine; he was toying with my fingertips now.

"I guess it wouldn't be a good idea if we had mini Mel's or Jared's running around right now, would it?" I asked.

Ian laughed. "No, it wouldn't be a good idea. First of all, it would be difficult to raise a child with the world the way that it is at the moment, and second, the thought of a mini Jared should be enough to scare people into abstinence."

I didn't recognize that word at first, and had to search Pet's memories for the meaning behind it. Once I found it, I laughed with Ian.

"So are you saying that no one will ever have children as long as we're living in the caves?"

Ian shook his head. "I'm not saying that. We have Freedom and Isaiah with us right now. They're doing alright because all they've even know was the caves. They don't know much about the outside world, and we don't intend to tell them until they are older and able to understand. But for right now, they're just living as much of a normal and happy childhood as we can give them."

I nodded. "I know that Mel has mentioned to me about having children, but I'm never sure with her whether she's talking about right now or sometime in the future."

"They may; and as horrific as a little Jared running around might sound, Mel would keep them both in line the best that she could. It would all work out. Who knows what the future holds? More kids may be born, but getting these contraceptives will give them a bit of a security blanket for right now."

I nodded. "I know."

"What about you? Have you ever thought about having children?" Ian asked quietly.

"I have," I answered, just as quiet. "Not much, mind you, but you know that it's my calling to be a mother."

"I know, I haven't forgotten, Wanda," Ian said, kissing my head.

"Yeah, well, like I said, I haven't thought about it much," I repeated.

"You have all the time in the world, Wanda, you don't have to make a decision right this second."

I nodded.

Just then there was a lot of yelling coming from the hall and a large crash. I jumped in Ian's arms and he held me tighter.

"Should we go see what that was about?" I asked.

"Nah, if they need us, they'll come find us."

Right that second, our door flew open and Jamie stormed into the room, followed by Mel, Jared, Kyle and Sunny.

"What is all this about?" he demanded.

I frowned and was confused about what he was talking about and Ian just shrugged.

"What are you talking about, Jamie?" Ian asked.

"He's peeved about everything," Jared answered.

"Define, 'everything'," Ian said.

"Alright, I will! First I learn that Wanda fainted yesterday and no one even bothered to tell me until now! And even then, I overheard Doc talking about it to someone. I don't even remember who it was anymore!" Jamie was clearly furious and I frowned before turning to the group at the door.

"You didn't tell him about yesterday at all?" They all just looked at me sheepishly and I shook my head. "That's wrong."

"We just wanted to protect him," Mel said.

"I'm not a baby any more, Mel! I can take care of myself! I need to know what goes on in the caves, I deserve to know!" Jamie practically yelled at her.

"He does have a point," Jared said.

"Shut up," Melanie snapped at him.

"So I find out about that and then Kyle tells me that everyone is leaving for a raid the day after tomorrow, without me!" Jamie was full blown shouting at this point, so I got up out of Ian's lap and started walking over to him.

"Don't come near me, you're just as bad as them!" Jamie said to me, rather harshly.

At his words, I could feel the tears spring up in my eyes, and I fought to hold them back, but I was sure they would spill over soon. I stopped moving and stood in front of Jamie. He looked up at me and I could visually see his face soften.

"Oh, Wanda, no; I didn't mean it like that," Jamie walked forward, closing the gap between us and hugged me, resting his chin on my head. I tentatively hugged him back. "I'm sorry, please don't cry. I didn't mean it at all. I don't hate you, I promise."

"I know, Jamie," I said, still trying to fight off the sobs. "It's alright."

"No it isn't, I should haven yelled."

"You're upset, we know that, it's okay," I reassured him, pulling away, giving him a weak smile.

"I just... I don't know why you guys keep leaving me out of these things. I'm old enough to know what's going on; you don't have to hide it from me anymore."

"That's the problem, Jamie," Mel spoke up. She walked forward and I backed away, giving them a little space. I felt Ian's strong arms around my waist and my back was pressed up against his chest; his head resting on the top of mine.

"You're my little brother, and I know how much you hate to hear it, but it's true. Ever since Mom and Dad were caught, it has been my responsibility to look after you; and that's never, ever going to stop. It's in my nature, in our blood for me to look out for you. I can't ever stop that, Jamie, or turn it off; it's a part of me, a part of me that will always be engaged in that aspect, will always want to protect you."

I could see Mel's tears falling down her face as her voice faltered halfway through her speech. Jamie at once wrapped her up in his arms and Jared came forward to place a hand on her shoulder. Seeing this made me completely lose my resolve and the tears began to spill over and down my own cheeks. I placed my hands on top of Ian's muscular forearms and leaned into him.

"It's okay, Mel. I know that you mean well. I don't hate you, you know, I just wish that you would see that I'm growing up," she nodded in his arms before pulling back and smoothing his hair flat on his head. "Can I come out on this raid with you guys then?"

"No," Melanie said with authority.

Jamie didn't seem to like her answer so he looked to Jared, who shook his head.

"Why not? You want me to learn to ropes and everything, but I'm not allowed to go out with you guys."

"We've already got enough people this time around, kid," Jared said to him.

"I promise you that the next raid you will be coming out with us," Melanie said to him.

Ian cleared his throat.

"In the place of Wanda," Jared said, in a defeated voice.

"Everyone heard that, right?" Ian asked.

Kyle shook his head, but nodded all the same and Sunny also nodded her head, looking over at me.

"Jamie, why don't you come with me, we can go over the plans for this raid and you can help me with strategies; how does that sound?" Jared asked him.

Jamie picked up his head and grinned. He started bouncing from the room, chattering away and practically dragging Jared and Mel with him. I giggled and Ian chuckled, the sound reverberating in his chest.

Kyle turned to face us. "Well, that could have gone worse, I suppose."

I ran a hand through my hair and Ian nodded; his chin still on the top of my head. Sunny tugged on Kyle's arm and he nodded towards her.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier, Wanda. I can see that not all souls are the same, and I really think that it's wonderful that we've got inter-species connections in the caves here. Lord knows that we need your help sometimes, and we're all forever indebted to you and Sunny."

I stood there gaping while I listened to Kyle's apology. I couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth at that moment. Apparently neither could Ian.

"Are you actually _apologizing_ to Wanda?" he asked, shocked.

"Yes."

Ian let out a low whistle. "Never thought I'd see the day..."

"Shut up," Kyle shot back at him.

"Alright, enough," I said to them once I found my voice. "We don't need any more fights between the O'Shea brothers today." I looked pointedly at Kyle's purple and blue face and they stopped bickering.

"Okay, see you around then Wanda, Ian."

"Bye guys," Sunny whispered as they left the room. She was still afraid of Ian, but at least made an effort.

"Okay, wasn't expecting that," I admitted, turning in Ian's arms to face him.

"Neither was I," he said, shaking his head.

"What?"

"I don't even know what to say, I'm so... shocked I suppose."

I giggled and hugged Ian tight, well, as tight as I could given that my strength didn't amount to much and he held me in his arms.

**Alright the results are in and the majority rules; the Host shall be made in to a movie, according to us! : ) Now we must convince Stephenie/Summitt. *nods***

**oO! It's 11:11pm... make a wish!!  
I wish that The Host was made into a movie, that Friday would come faster (two reasons: one for Twilight movie, two for the new Harry Potter trailer that's supposed to accompany it) and that it would stop snowing here! : )**

**Review! :) **


	7. The Day Before

**A/N: Surprise!!! A little gift from me to you for your wonderfully kind reviews! This for you in celebration of reaching 50 reviews! Thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed up until this point! Enjoy! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

"Is there anything that we need to do?" I asked Ian while he was holding me in his arms.

"No, you know that we don't need to do much before we go out. I'm letting Kyle and Jared handle this one," Ian replied and I nodded.

"Wanda, I want you to know that you don't have to do anything that Jared asks you to."

"Ian," I said, looking up at him. "You've told me that so many times so far that it's ingrained in my head now. I know that I don't have to."

"I'm just trying to protect you, Wanda. I don't want you to get hurt or anything because of something stupid that he asks you to do."

"I won't get hurt; you can trust me," I said to him, burrowing my head back in his chest.

Ian and I stood there embracing each other before he started guiding me backwards until the back of my knees came in contact with our mattresses. He then let go of me and I flopped back onto the bed, curling up on one side. I was incredibly tired; the day had been draining, but while I was lying down, I had forgotten about my shoulder and lay right down on it. I gasped and let out a small scream.

"Wanda?" Ian frantically turned me over onto my back and began searching my body. "What is it? Are you alright? Please tell me, Wanda."

"I'm fine, Ian; I just lay on my bad shoulder, its fine."

Ian frowned down at me. "Wanda, you shouldn't be screaming out over simply lying on your shoulder. That's not right. Have you been using it at all today?"

I tried to think of if I had actually used it for anything today. When I looked through Doc's cupboards, I had used my good shoulder. I tried thinking about everything that I had done so far, but couldn't think of when I had used my bad shoulder for anything.

"You haven't used it, have you?" Ian said to me, but it was more of a statement than a question.

I sighed and shook my head.

"We need to get you down to Doc then; he needs to have a look at it, get it healed," Ian said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side.

"No, Ian, there's no point, really. Doc can't do anything for me; he has no equipment to look inside, and there's no Heal left to help either."

"What do you mean there's no Heal left?" Ian asked, looking over his shoulder back at me.

"I mean exactly that. Nobody should get hurt while we're gone or else they're going to be in trouble."

"How can there be none of it left? We stole _cases_ of it the last time."

"I know, but I guess a lot of people have been getting hurt or something," I answered shrugging.

"Well, I would still feel better if you would go down to Doc and let him have a look at it."

"And have him say what? That yes, there definitely is a bruise on my shoulder? I'm sure it's nothing, Ian, but if it's still bothering you that much, I'll go get it looked at while we're out on the raid," I offered, but he shook his head, turning back around.

"I'm not letting you go into those buildings alone, what if you never come out?"

I frowned. "I thought that we weren't supposed to think about the 'what if's' according to you? And that would never happen, Ian. Souls are trusting people; I would just tell them that I fell and they would patch it up, no big deal."

Ian shook his head and buried it in his hands.

"Ian, why don't you trust me?"

He picked his face up out of his hands, with a horrified look on his face.

"Wanda! What makes you think that I don't trust you?"

"I don't know," I mumbled, looking away.

"No, please tell me," Ian kneeled forward, so that he was taller than me and cupped my face in his hands. "I want to know why you would think that."

I looked up into his blue eyes. "It's just that you're always looking out for me; always waiting to find my errors or flaws, I guess. I'm hardly ever away from you, and you get nervous when I am for a long period of time."

Ian frowned. "Do you not want me around?"

"No, no! That's not it at all! No, no no! Ian, I promise, I like having you around, it's just... I don't know."

"Wanda, the reason that I'm always around you is because deep down I'm worried that something will happen to you. I won't be able to live without you by my side. Now that I know what living truly is, with you around, I don't think I could carry on without you with me. I just want to know that you're safe, is all. That's what being in love is, Wanda. I care for you so much, that I'm a bit possessive. I don't want anything to happen to you that might take you away from me. I need you with me for now and for always, and nothing will ever change that."

I couldn't help but smile at his words, and I could feel the tears making a comeback. I tried to turn my head away so that he wouldn't see them pooling up in my eyes, but Ian's grip remained firm, so instead, I looked down and tried to hide.

"Wanda, you're beautiful. Please don't hide from me."

Those words did me in. The tears spilled over and cascaded freely down my cheeks; there was nothing I could do to rein them in at this point. Ian's thumb softly grazed my left cheek and wiped the tears off of it. This simple gesture made me cry harder. Never before had anyone been so gentle and kind to me as Ian; and his words made me break apart. I knew that he loved me; he just put it into words so gracefully that I couldn't not doubt his feelings for me, like I had so many times before.

I looked down for a second and when I looked back up, Ian's face was moving closer to mine. He was so close that I could see every little blemish or freckle on his face, his blue eyes penetrating my own. Ian's eyes fluttered close as he continued to move closer, I could almost see each individual eyelash. I closed my own eyes as our lips touched for a second; the sensation made me cry a little more. Never before had something in my life felt so right before now; and I knew that Ian and I were meant to be.

Ian started to pull away from me, but I wrapped my arm around his neck, pulling his lips down to mine once again. The electricity between us was incredible, it seemed renewed since his little speech from a few moments ago. I could feel Ian's lips smiling on mine, and I started to move my lips to try and get him to follow along. Luckily, he complied and our lips began to move in synchronization.

I could taste my tears as they kept falling down my face, now mixing with our lips until we could taste their salty flavour. Ian seemed to like this sensation; either that or he was mad that I was still crying; but he let out a small growl and began attacking my lips hungrily. One of his hands wrapped around the back of my head, supporting it as my head was being pushed back slightly by the force of his lips on mine. The other had wrapped itself around my small waist and was bringing me closer to him.

I shifted my body so that I was sitting just in front of him with my legs on either side of him while he kept his lips moving on mine. All too soon, he pulled away from me to catch a breath. Ian didn't go too far, he kissed my right cheek, and then my left; I could feel his ragged breath on them before he kissed my forehead.

"I love you, my Wanda," he whispered, his voice a bit raspy.

I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"I love you too, Ian."

Ian moaned and then his lips were attacking mine once more. This time when I closed my eyes and my head leaned back from the pressure on my lips, he began to gently guide me back and gently lay me down on the bed. Every one of his little actions filled my heart with love until it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

He knelt down over top of me, and removed his hands from the back of my neck, keeping the one around my waist in place. I could hardly feel any of his weight on top of me; just enough to make me hyper aware of his presence on top of me, but not enough to crush me beneath him. I loved the feeling of him on top of me; it made me feel safe and secure and I loved having him in control. Ian's tongue lightly brushed against my lips, and I willingly gave him an entrance.

Our tongues danced together for a little while until I broke away from him; not that I wanted to, but I realized that breathing was sort of a necessity. Ian pressed his forehead to mine and I couldn't help but smile at him.

"I see you've stopped crying," he noted, whispering gently against my face, his warm breath dancing across my cheeks.

I nodded. "You distracted me," I whispered back and he chuckled.

Ian kissed my lips once, twice, three times before pulling away. There were no interruptions this time, but it felt right all the same. He rolled over then, pulling me on top of him and I gladly rested my head on Ian's large, strong chest. I lay over top of his heart and I could hear it beating erratically in his chest; mirroring the frantic beats of my own at that moment. We were silent for a few minutes and I could feel my eyelids begin to droop again. This was the customary for the day before a raid; we always slept during the day so that we could leave during the night and not be tired.

I could feel Ian's fingers gently running through my long blonde hair, and it was making the sleep come faster.

"Ian?"

"Hmm?" he murmured, on the verge of sleep himself, it sounded like.

"Never mind, I'll let you sleep."

"No, I'm listening," he said, his calloused fingers feeling so nice on my scalp.

"Well I just wanted you to know that I'm a bit possessive of you too," I said to him, repeating his words from before. "I now know what it's like to be in love and I don't plan on letting you go."

Ian chuckled. "I know, Wanda. I'm the same way. They would have to rip you from my arms before I gave you up; ever."

Ian's breathing evened out then, and I could tell that he fell asleep; he began emitting snores a few moments later confirming my suspicions. I smiled to myself and tightened my arms around Ian's body a little, but not enough to wake him up. I knew that I always wanted Ian by my side no matter what happened, and at that moment I finally came to terms with the love that I felt for him.

I, the soul called Wanderer was officially head over heels in love with Ian O'Shea; and I knew that there was no turning back now.

**Ian POV**

I woke up to find Wanda still in my arms. I smiled a little as I looked down at her blonde hair that was cascading down my chest and onto the bed beside us. I yearned to run my fingers through it, but I didn't dare in case I woke her up.

I thought about what had happened before we fell asleep and my heart swelled. I had finally mustered up the courage to tell her what had been on my mind for a very long time now. I confessed my true love for her, as she had done for me. It felt like I was on cloud nine at this point. I loved Wanda with every part of me, and nothing could ever change that; no raid, no Seeker, nothing. Without Wanda, my life would be a dark and depressing void-something that I wasn't sure that I could live through.

I cursed myself for even thinking about not being with her, as I knew that wasn't even a possibility. I looked down at the girl sleeping in my arms and she looked so at peace. It was refreshing to see her lying there. With everything that was going on in the caves; and the war outside of it, I couldn't think of a better place for me to be. This is where I felt the calmest, with my one love.

Talking about children earlier had made me start to think about our future together. I knew that it was her 'calling' or whatever she had called it, to be a mother; she had already told us that she was one of the few that could actually create more souls, but I wasn't sure that it was something that she would be willing to create in a human form. I wished that times were different so that I could love and cherish Wanda properly, like she deserved and give her a big house with a white picket fence and several children, but realistically, it couldn't happen right now.

I sighed at the thought.

What _could_ I offer her than my love and protection for her? What else could I give her other than this little cave that we lived in together? I wanted Wanda to know that she truly meant something to me; I wanted the world to know that she was mine. I wanted nothing more than for the world to know exactly how much that she meant to me. I wanted her as mine and mine only.

I stopped. Was I seriously thinking about making Wanda my own legally? As in marriage?

I looked down at Wanda's sleeping form and bit my lip. Was it even possible? Would she want that from me? So many doubts and insecurities about my feelings crossed my mind and I knew that I had to get up and really think about them. I decided that taking a bath was the best place for thinking; I could truly be alone with only my thoughts. I looked up at the cracks in the ceiling-night. No one would be down there; I could have the pool to myself.

Ever so gently, I rolled Wanda over so that she was lying on her back on the mattress. I paused as she moaned a little and stopped breathing until she rolled onto her side and tucked her arms under her head like a pillow falling fast asleep again. I breathed a sigh of relief and swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up.

I started making my way over to the door, but then I thought about it. I couldn't leave Wanda here alone, what if she woke up and found me gone? I would certainly panic if I were in her place. I turned around and found a small scrap piece of paper and wrote her a quick note.

"_Wanda,  
I've gone down to clean up before we leave for the raid. If you wake up and find this, I won't be too much longer. I'll be back up right away.  
Ian."_

I folded up the piece of paper and left it on my side of the bed with her name on the front of it. She would certainly find it there when she woke up, I was sure of it. I hastily grabbed a towel and a change of clothes along with the last of our precious soap before sliding the red door out of the way and stepping into the hall.

I took one last look at Wanda's beautiful sleeping form to make sure that I didn't wake her and smiled to myself as I put the door back in place. She was the most gorgeous creature I had ever known and I certainly wasn't about to let her go; not in a million years.

I smiled to myself as I began the trek down to the bathroom. I didn't pass anyone on the way; though I knew that Jared and the rest were likely running around trying to complete last minute things like they always were. I was lucky not to run into them. I made my way into the bathing room and quickly removed my clothes, jumping into the pool. Once I resurfaced, I began to think.

Could I really be seriously thinking about marrying Wanda?

I mean, she meant the world to me, and I wanted her by my side forever, but marrying her would completely take her off the market, so to speak.

"_Why is that such a bad thing, Ian?"_ I asked myself.

I couldn't seem to find an answer to that one.

I guess it just seemed that Wanda was so young; not just in her physical body, but young as a member of this planet. Sure, she had lived full lives on many other worlds, but she had only just arrived on this one, shouldn't it be natural for her to wait a long time before even considering it?

I knew that I was ready to settle down; now that I really thought about it, I knew in my heart and soul that I was, but I couldn't ask Wanda to be mine so soon, could I?

I sighed in frustration, dunking my head under the water before swimming over to grab my soap. I began to wash my hair and realized I needed to make a decision.

On one hand, I could risk it all and ask Wanda to be mine, and be happy with her for the rest of our lives; well, as happy as we could be under the circumstances. On the other, I could let her live, let her explore, even if it was at the cost of potentially losing her. We hadn't really interacted with the other rebel groups out there, and she knew that there were other soul-human people out there, so wouldn't it be natural that she would want to live and be with her own kind?

I swam underwater to rinse the soap out of my hair and came back up to the surface and came to my conclusion.

I needed to do it.

I needed to know if Wanda would even want to be with me that way. I know it seemed selfish, and it really was, once I thought about it, but I needed her to live. I needed to know that she felt the same way about me and that we could take our relationship to the next level.

I climbed out of the pool and dried off. Even if she didn't want to get married right away, I would wait. I had waited a long time for her to even arrive; I would certainly wait the little amount of time that it would be before we got married. We could do it however she liked, I thought while pulling my clean clothes back on. I couldn't imagine that Wanda would be the type for a big fancy to doo, that wasn't her style; but I would certainly go along with whatever she wanted; it was then end result that I really cared about.

I wanted to talk to someone about this, just to run it by them and see what they thought, but who? That was the big question here.

Kyle was always an option, but given the fact that I recently broke his nose, I doubt that he would want to talk about anything that made me happy. Jared would probably just laugh at me before beating me up for even thinking about marrying a soul; though he treated her as a part of the family, I knew that it would push him to the limit. I wished that Sunny would talk to me, but she saw me as too big of a threat, and any progress that I had made in getting her to see differently was probably just as squashed as Kyle's nose at the moment. That left only one person; Melanie.

She was probably the most logical person to talk to, I reasoned with myself, leaving the bathroom. After all, Wanda and Mel had lived with each other for months; they knew each other's ins and outs, and were closer than twin sisters. Yes, Mel was definitely the person to talk to. Now I just had to find her.

I looked in Doc's room, because that was where I had last left everyone, but the only one in there was Doc himself, and he was sound asleep. I guess he was too excited for the raid to make it back to his bed with Sharon. I chuckled and let him sleep in peace. I tried the kitchen next and they weren't there either.

"_Where the heck could they be?"_ I thought; there weren't that many places in the caves to be.

Then it dawned on me. They'd be in the games room, playing one last game of soccer. Jared had mentioned something to me about playing before, but evidently I had forgotten and no one had come barging through the door looking for me. Well, they might have come and seen that Wanda and I were sleeping, but that had never stopped them from yanking me up to play before.

Shaking my head at my stupidity, I lightly jogged in that direction.

About halfway there, I don't know what I was doing, but I slammed right into someone. Instinctively, I stuck my arms out to steady the person before looking to see who it was that I was bashing into now. Just my luck, it was Mel.

"What the hell, O'Shea? Watch where you're going," she grumbled and started to walk past me.

"No, wait!" I called out to her and she turned around. "I ah..." I ran my hand through my hair, suddenly nervous.

"You what?" Mel asked, quickly becoming impatient.

"I need to talk to you about something.... about Wanda."

Mel smiled at that. "What might you possibly want to talk to me about?"

"Not here," I said hastily, looking around. "I don't want anyone to hear."

She raised her eyebrows at me, but led me to the second field which was deserted before plopping herself down on the ground.

"Spit it out, Ian. What do you want to talk about?"

I sat down beside her and looked down at my hands. "Well, you know that I like Wanda a lot, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap Ian, _everyone _knows that."

I sighed. "Alright, well... I've been... toying with the possibility of..." I stopped, feeling really stupid all of a sudden. How could I trust Mel with what I was about to say?

Normally I was a very confident guy, but at the moment, I wasn't so sure about my manliness anymore.

"I am going to come over there and beat it out of you if you don't tell me," Mel threatened.

Oh, that's why I was about to tell her.

"I've been toying with the possibility of.... asking Wanda to marry me," I finally said to her.

She didn't say anything right away, so I nervously looked up to see why. I wasn't expecting what I saw.

Melanie had covered her mouth with both of her hands and her eyes were opened up wide. At first I thought that I might have killed her until I could see the visible tears in her eyes. I waited until she seemed to come out of her little moment of shock before starting to say anything.

"Mel, I..."

She cut me off though.

"Oh my gosh Ian!" Mel said so fast that I barely caught it. "Are you serious right now?"

I nodded my head.

"Ohhhhh! I think that's the sweetest thing ever! Seriously! How are you going to propose? Do you have a ring? Can I see it?"

I held up my hands in surrender, which shut her up.

"Mel, I don't even know if she would even agree to it. I'm scared about that."

I jumped as her hand collided with my arm as she smacked me.

"That's half the battle! You're supposed to get all worked up about it and fear the rejection, even though you _know_ the answer. Wanda would never say no."

"Are you sure?" I asked quietly.

"Ian," Mel said, sitting up on her knees to look at me. "I know Wanda almost better than I know myself. She will be so overwhelmed, but she would never say no to you."

"That's the problem though, she wouldn't say no to anyone. I wouldn't want her to agree because she felt pressured to; or she felt that she had to," I admitted.

"Is that what you're afraid of?"

I waited a few seconds before nodding slowly.

"That's a stupid thing to be worried about. Wanda is very opinionated; she knows when to say no, she just doesn't do it a lot to the ones that she loves. If she wanted to, she could refuse you, but she won't. I see the way that she looks at you; I heard the thoughts she had about you when she was still in here," she tapped her temple. "Wanda is the most loving creature on this planet, and she told me that she had never loved anyone else as much as she loves you."

"She... she really said that?"

"Yes, Ian."

I sat there, thinking about Melanie's words. I knew she was right, but I would always fear the possible rejection. Wanda had every right to say no to me, but deep down I knew that she never would.

"So, do you have the ring? How are you going to propose?"

I smiled and started to answer Mel's questions and she gave me her feedback. When I proposed to Wanda, I was going to do it right; I wasn't going to half ass something like this to the one person that I truly loved the most.

**Surprise #2: a little snippet from Ian's POV. What did you think?  
Till Sunday *tips hat*  
Review! :)**


	8. Leaving

**A/N: Sorry about the late update; had some RL stuff to do that unfortunately got in the way of writing. As always, I really appreciate your reviews and unfortunately didn't have much time to respond to many of them, so I will be doing that in the next couple of days! As a result, I've made this one extra long.**

**Shall be working to get these out as soon as I can now that the craziness has held up for the time being.**

**Thanks so much to shouvley, mcena99, EdwardAlways, vanilfrappe, Hanging on a thread, Forever Your Angel, vampire's kisses 4 me and .Silenced-Peace. for reviewing! Many of you reviewed more than once, so I doubly thank you for that! :) **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**W POV**

I slowly started to wake up and stretched out across the empty bed. Wait.

"_This bed shouldn't be empty_," I thought, looking around groggily. _"Where is Ian? Did something happen?"_

A thousand different scenarios ran through my head, not one of them ending positively. Quickly I flung off the light sheet that was covering me; making a mental note to pick up a blanket for our bed, and scrambled around for some clothes to throw on. I ended up in a pair of ratty old shorts that someone had given me and one of Ian's shirts that was covered in dirt.

I fought with the stupid red door, tying to open it; of course it seemed to be stuck, before kicking it, resulting in a shooting pain in my fight foot.

"Dammit."

I wasn't sure how sore my foot really was, as I was running off pure adrenaline to find Ian as fast as I could, preferably safe and sound, but I was really worried. Eventually I got it moved out of the way, but didn't bother to put it back as I ran through the halls towards the main room. Once I got there I quickly thought of a few possible places that he could be and started running towards the first one; the kitchen.

I arrived there in record time and glanced around, not recognizing the person that I was searching for. I sighed loudly into the empty space and it seemed to echo off the walls pretty loud. I turned on my heel and ran off to the next possible place that he could be in; the games room. I knew that they liked to play one last game of soccer before they went out on a raid, so it was very likely that he was with them after all.

I ran down the tunnel towards the room, realizing that I had forgotten a lamp, and it was exceptionally dark down here. I got to the room and there was nothing except a few articles of clothing that had been left behind from a game that had apparently taken place.

"_If Ian had been playing in this game, he would be headed back to our cave,"_ I concluded and took off in the direction that I thought that Ian would be mostly likely to take back there.

Ian couldn't have been taken by the Seekers or something, right? I mean, if an attack had happened, the caves would be buzzing with activity; they wouldn't still be as dormant as they were now. Unless they had done it so quietly that no one had noticed. But that wouldn't have happened; Ian would have put up a fight and we would have heard it, for sure. I stopped in our doorway and no one was in there, so I tore off in the direction of Doc's room, my heart pounding in my chest.

If Ian had been taken, I would never forgive myself. I should have been there to give myself up and have them leave Ian. It wouldn't have worked; the Seekers would have still taken him, but I would have fought with everything in my power to save him from them. I would have given him the time to swallow the pill that he carried everywhere.

I let out a strangled sob at the thought of Ian killing himself before my eyes. He would never do it in front of me, but given the situation, you never knew. I just hoped with all of my heart that I wasn't too late.

I tripped on something as I ran into Doc's room, only to find him asleep in his chair with his head lying on his desk. I couldn't hold it in any longer, my eyes filled with tears and they began to stream down my cheeks. Where else could Ian be? The possibilities were quickly dwindling, and it wasn't like Ian to disappear like this.

I slowly walked back to the big field and looked around for him; well, I looked as best as I could considering the fact that my tears were obstructing my vision. He wasn't there either. I knotted my hands in my hair before turning around and setting off in a random direction to look for him.

My feet had taken me to the bathroom, which had only brought back memories of when Kyle and I were here. Could he have finally gotten revenge on Ian for something? We all knew how he felt about me; he might have gotten rid of Ian. I looked down into the hot water flow, but couldn't see much. I poked my head into the pool and called out.

"Ian? Ian are you here?"

Of course there was no response, so I sobbed loud and hard. I didn't want to believe that Ian was gone, but it was looking like it was more and more probable.

I slowed my walk from the bathroom and wrapped my arms around myself, outright crying by this point. I blindly walked around the rest of the caves looking everywhere for him and trying my hardest not to convince myself that he was gone; he couldn't be gone.

I walked into the second field and looked around, seeing nothing again. That's when I collapsed to the ground on my knees and buried my head in my hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Wanda?"

I was imagining his voice, for certain. He was gone, my Ian was gone. The one person on this entire earth that I cared for, the one person that I had ever loved was gone. Loved?

The word echoed in my head as I vaguely thought I heard Ian calling out my name again. Did I love Ian? Sure, I would do absolutely anything for him; I would give my life for him, there was no doubt about that. I thought I felt arms around me, ones that felt very similar to Ian's strong and muscular ones, but I was certain that I was imagining them. I had to be, after all Ian was nowhere to be found. I just wished that he would hold me and comfort me; Ian seemed to be able to calm me down and I always felt safe with him around.

Was it love when you were panicky about being away from someone? I felt like that whenever Ian was away from me for a long period of time; not that he generally was, but all the same. I loved being close to him, he was my world in every meaning. He was one of the few that I actually stayed on this planet for. I suppose that could constitute as love, but I wasn't sure.

"Wanda," something was tickling my ear, but it was probably just my hair. I went to push it out of the way, but my hand collided with something concrete instead.

"Wanda please, tell me what's wrong?" Ian's voice seemed to be right in my ear and his warm breath blew across my left cheek. "Please."

Instead of answering, I moved my hand back so that it was touching on this mysterious mirage that my mind seemed to be creating. It certainly was very life like, I decided. The nose felt exactly like Ian's nose; the lips the same shape, there was even the right amount of stubble grazing my fingers.

"Wanda, please," this voice pleaded.

Slowly, very slowly I turned in the arms that were around me to face this image. I certainly wasn't expecting what I saw.

I was still crying and my eyes still full of tears as I took in the sight in front of me. My mind was certainly playing tricks on me. This Ian in front of me had exactly the same face as my Ian, same cheekbones, same curved lips, same eyes; but these eyes were filled with an emotion that I couldn't really make out through the haziness of my tears. They seemed to be filled with pain and hurt, though why they would look like that was beyond me.

"Wanda, please tell me," it spoke to me and Ian's sultry voice floated from between the lips in front of me.

I shook my head and whispered very lightly, "You're not real."

If I thought that I traced hurt in these eyes before, it was nothing compared to now; the look had increased ten-fold. He brought one of his large hands up beside my head and his calloused fingers grazed my forehead, very gently as he brushed the blonde hair out of my eyes.

"I am real, Wanda."

I shook my head again.

He closed his eyes and slowly leaned closer to me. I figured that as long as I was imagining things, I might as well kill this image of Ian; I was certainly going crazy anyways. When our lips touched, I felt that familiar jolt of electricity that I did when I kissed the real Ian's lips too. My eyes flew open to look at him.

Granted, his eyes were closed, but it _was_ him. Ian was really here; he hadn't been taken away by the Seekers, he had been safe all along. Ian's lips began to move on mine and I complied, kissing him with renewed force and passion in my relief to have finally found him. I brought one of my hands up to the back of his head and twisted his hair between my fingers. Ian's hands stayed on my back, but they brought me considerably closer. Once it was apparent that we needed to breathe, we pulled away, but just enough so that we could catch a breath.

"Ian, you're really here," I said softly against his lips.

"Of course I am," he whispered back. "Where else would I have been?"

His words reminded me of why I was out of the room in the first place and I began to cry in his arms.

"Oh, Wanda no, please don't cry." Ian pulled me closer and crushed me to his chest while he ran his hands in soothing circles on my back. "Everything is fine, my love, there is nothing to cry about."

I started to cry harder at his mention of me being 'his love'. Ian had only said that to me a handful of times, and I still wasn't entirely convinced that he was being entirely truthful, though I knew how much he seemed to love me. I still could never seem to convince myself that he really was talking about me.

"Wanda please," his voice broke in desperation as he pulled me away to kiss my forehead. "Please tell me what is wrong so that I can fix it."

"It's nothing," I whispered, silently praying that he would drop it, though I knew that was impossible.

Ian frowned at me. "Wanda, it is not 'nothing'; don't try and convince me otherwise." He then kissed both my cheeks before whispering, "Please."

I took a deep breath. "I... I just. I was worried about you."

His frown deepened. "Why were you worried about me?"

"I woke up and you were nowhere to be found."

"Oh," Ian whispered, looking away.

"I looked everywhere for you, Ian. I looked in the kitchen and the games room, and Doc's room and even the bathroom and I couldn't find you anywhere." I paused. "I... I was convinced that you had been... that you had been...taken."

Ian's eyes widened and he pulled me close again. "Never, Wanda; that would never happen. I couldn't leave you without saying goodbye; and I would never, ever leave you anyways." He looked down at me. "But didn't you see my note?"

It was my turn to frown. "Your note?"

"I guess not. Did you honestly think that I would leave you alone sleeping without letting you know where I was going?"

I looked away sheepishly as Ian turned me sideways in his lap.

"I suppose not."

"I never would. I wrote you a note and left it on my side of the bed. I figured that if you woke up you would stretch out and feel it. That or notice it as your eyes opened."

"I didn't see it."

He chuckled. "I gathered that."

I felt incredibly stupid.

"I'm sorry," I half whispered to him.

Ian's arms tightened around me. "Wanda, don't ever be sorry. You have nothing to apologize for."

"But I was so stupid. I got all worked up over nothing; I mean, you had left a note, I just didn't bother to look around."

"You were not stupid," he rested his chin on my head. "It was as good a reason as any to come looking for me. I certainly would have if I was in your position and you had disappeared when I was sleeping."

I cringed at his words; I had already done that to him about a month ago.

"I'm sorry."

Ian sighed. "What is it now, Wanda?"

"I've already done that to you."

There was a silence that ensued; my comment and neither of us spoke for a while. I didn't want to be the one to break it, for I didn't know what to say. Ian finally spoke up.

"I have forgiven you for that, and besides, it was in the past; it's done. What matters the most to me is that we are here together for now and forever. Nothing else matters as long as I have you." He leaned down until his lips were right beside my ear. "I love you."

I smiled and blushed a little at his words before turning to face him. "I love you too."

I knew it from the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes that I loved Ian. I never wanted to be without him for the rest of my life, and when we aged and got older, I would die a natural death beside him and not be moved from Pet's body before we died.

"Hey!"

A loud voice came from the other side of the cave and I was able to make out Jared's figure from the shadows as he came closer to us.

"What is it, Jared?" Ian asked, his chest rumbling against my ear.

"It's nearly time to go, are you guys ready?"

I looked up at the cracks in the ceiling, was it really that time already?

"We've just got to go back to our room and grab a few things, but we'll be right there," Ian replied, standing up slowly and pulling me to my feet as well.

"Alright, we'll meet you by the main door in like ten minutes, alright?" Jared said to us and I nodded.

Jared turned around and escorted Mel out of the field; I hadn't even noticed that she was standing there with him in the first place. Ian took a step in front of me and then turned to look at me.

"You ready?"

I shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

He chuckled and tugged on my hand. "Come on, let's grab our stuff and go meet them before Jared becomes impatient."

I nodded and walked beside Ian. He wrapped his strong arm around my small waist and I felt safe and secure in his arm. In a matter of a few seconds, it seemed like, we were back at our room and Ian was leading me inside.

Immediately I noticed the small little folded piece of white paper that was on the bed resting right where Ian had been sleeping earlier. Feeling foolish, I walked over to it, picking it up and opening the letter. Ian came to stand behind me, wrapping both of his arms around me and resting his chin on my right shoulder as I read it. I hadn't noticed how chilled I was until I could feel Ian's body heat permeate off of him and I involuntarily shivered. As a result, he tightened his hold on me ever so slightly.

"You see, I would never have just left you. I love you too much to give you a heart attack like that." He paused. "And I don't want to hear your apology for what happened before. Like I said, that was in the past, I know why you did it and I forgive you."

I dropped the letter to the floor and turned around to kiss Ian lightly on the lips. I was sure that I could live twenty lives and never be able to figure out how Ian and I came to be; I certainly didn't deserve someone like him. I was one of the ones that had forced them into hiding, and yet he loved me like there was nothing wrong with me at all. I would never figure it out.

Ian sighed. "As much as I would love to stay here with you and let this continue," I blushed a whole lot at that, "We really do need to get going. I don't want to be castrated by Jared for holding everyone up."

I frowned. I couldn't recall the meaning of the word that Ian had used and he looked down at me, chuckling softly.

"It means that he'll revoke my manliness."

My mouth formed into what I'm certain was a very comical 'o' shape, as Ian began to laugh at me.

"Thanks, Ian," I pouted as I walked across the room to retrieve my bag, slinging it across my back.

"You know I'm only kidding around with you, right?" He looked into my eyes to make sure that I wasn't really mad at him, and I couldn't help but smile.

He returned a smile and picked up his own bag, reaching across to take mine off my back, but I turned my shoulder away.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to carry your bag, what did you think I was doing."

"I can carry my own bag, Ian."

"I know that, but it would make me feel a whole lot better if you weren't carrying that bag," Ian said, reaching out for my bag again.

"Ian, I really can carry my own bag."

I turned to leave the room and wasn't on my guard, so Ian managed to snatch the strap of my bag, effectively making it fall off my back and he caught it. I shook my head and continued walking, letting it fall so that Ian could take it away from me completely. I knew that I wasn't going to win that battle, and I wasn't willing to argue with him over something silly like that. I stepped outside the room and turned around to wait for Ian to exit the room.

I smiled as I saw Ian coming towards me with a huge smile on his face; two knapsacks slung over his shoulder. He stepped over the threshold and turned to slide the red door back in place before turning to face me once again. He offered me his hand and I took it, quickly lacing my fingers with his. I loved feeling my fingers wrapped with mine, it made me feel extra small for whatever reason; and I loved the feeling. As we walked towards the rest of the group that were waiting for us to leave, I rubbed my thumb over his fingers, loving the feeling.

I felt like I had to touch Ian as much as possible leading up to this raid. I don't know why, but I wanted to be around Ian as much as possible. I squeezed his palm as we rounded the corner and Jared, Mel, Jamie and Jeb came into view.

**Ian POV**

I felt Wanda squeeze my hand as Jared, Mel, Jamie and Jeb came into view and I felt like she was trying to hold on to me for something. I couldn't quite figure it out, but I liked her closeness, and I certainly wasn't going to complain.

I knew that there was still something else that I had to do before we left for this raid, just so that I had the option of it while we were out. I just needed to somehow get away from Wanda for a few minutes and confront Kyle on his own. I didn't want anyone but Kyle and Mel to know for right now, and I had sworn Melanie into secrecy and I needed to tell Kyle the same, though I knew that neither of them would tell anyone.

Wanda walked up to Melanie and started talking to her, so I took the time to drop her hand and pretend to go through our bags to make sure that everything was there. I already knew that it was, for I had checked and re-checked the bags several times.

"Ian, what are you looking for?" Wanda asked me.

"I'm just making sure that we have everything."

I looked up at her smiling and saw her slight frown.

"But I thought you had gone through those bags like a hundred times, surely we couldn't have forgotten anything."

This was going to be harder than I thought.

"I know. But looking through your bag, I've just decided to get you another sweater," I said, standing up.

"Are you sure?" she asked sceptically.

I nodded. "You never know what the weather will be like out, and I don't want you to get cold."

"Ian," she tilted her head to her side. "If I get cold, I'll just steal one of your sweaters, there's no need to go back."

I smirked. "But what if I'm wearing it?"

"You'd take it off and give it to me," she replied with a small smile.

She knew me all too well. "Sure, but I'd still feel better if we packed one extra one just in case anyways."

She sighed. "Whatever makes you sleep at night."

I smiled and hugged her before kissing her head and turning to leave, but she pulled on my arm and I leaned down so she could whisper in my ear.

"Promise me that you'll come back."

I frowned. "Of course I'll come back to you, why wouldn't I?"

She shrugged and I kissed her head again before turning and quickly jogging off in the direction of Kyle and Sunny's room. I got there quickly and knocked once before pushing aside the piece of cloth they used as a door.

Kyle was shoving all kinds of things into a bag while Sunny was waiting for him patiently, sitting on the bed. I could never figure out how she had so much patience for him; anyone else would have given him a kick in the ass to get him moving.

"Not packed again, I see?" I asked, leaning against the door frame.

Kyle glared up at me and Sunny smiled at me for once in her life. I really wanted to make some progress with her as she was close with Wanda, and I wanted her to feel like she belonged, but I had to wait for her to open up to me; there was really nothing more that I could do at this point.

"Was there something that you wanted, Ian? Or are you just here to make fun of me again?" Kyle asked as he shoved another shirt into his bag.

"I wanted to talk to you, actually. But now that I'm here, I might as well make sure that you have enough clean underwear now that I'm at it. I'm really looking out for everyone else on the raid."

Kyle growled. "Sunny, do you think that you could start heading down to meet up with the rest of them? We'll be right behind you."

Sunny's eyes immediately widened and I was pretty sure that she wasn't going to go anywhere and I wasn't too sure about that. Then I witnessed something that I thought that I would never see before in my life.

Kyle looked over at Sunny's face and immediately dropped whatever was in his hands, instead running over to Sunny's side and sitting beside her on the bed and pulling her close, wrapping his arms around her. I didn't say anything and decided to see how this would pan out. With any luck, Sunny would soften him up for what I was going to say to him afterwards.

He was whispering in her ear, and it was hard to hear, but I strained my hearing so that I could listen in.

"Sunny, I promise that I will be right there in a few minutes, nothing will happen between now and then, I promise. Ian just has to talk to me about something, and I'm going to catch up to you as fast as possible."

"But who is going to be there?" she whispered back.

"Probably just Jared, Mel, Jamie and Wanda. You know that nothing will happen, Sunny. Wanda will be there."

She visibly relaxed at the thought of Wanda being there and I couldn't help but smile a little at the effect that my Wanda had on Sunny. I was really grateful for her being there; those seemed to be the magic words for her and it would probably sway her into leaving Kyle and I alone for at least a little while.

Sunny smiled at whatever Kyle's words were and she hugged him tight as he kissed her forehead. I was baffled. I hadn't seen Kyle so considerate towards someone since before all this happened, back when he was with Jodi. She stood up and received one last hug from Kyle before heading towards the door. I smiled at her, but she sort of shied away from me as she walked through the door, and I wasn't going to push it.

"Was there something you wanted, Ian?" Kyle asked as Sunny's footsteps faded away and he began throwing things back into his bag.

"Yes, there was something that I wanted, actually," I pushed off the wall and walked over to sit down on his bed.

"Well?"

"I wanted to talk to you about... Mom's ring."

Kyle dropped whatever he had in his hands and looked up at me incredulously.

"You're not serious, are you?"

"Obviously I am or I wouldn't be asking you."

He sat there, not really sure of what to say and just gaped at me.

"But she's... she's a soul."

"I know."

He finally regained his composure and started packing again. I turned to look at him and began to explain myself.

"Look, Kyle, I understand that you might not get it right now, but I love Wanda more than anything else on this entire planet; more than anything in this known universe. You, of all people have got to see the changes in me that Wanda has brought about. I'm not saying that I'm going to propose today or anything, but I know that I definitely want to make her mine for the rest of our lives."

He zipped up his bag in silence before looking at me.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive."

Kyle sighed and came to sit on the bed beside me.

"I just don't want to see you making a huge mistake. I don't want to see my little brother get hurt."

"Kyle, I'm touched by your sympathy, but I am so sure right now. I know that Wanda is the only one for me, ever."

"What if she doesn't feel the same way though?"

"She will," I answered confidently. "Besides, that's a risk that I'm willing to take. What's a little nervousness leading up to it going to be compared to a lifetime of love for her."

I could see Kyle biting his lip and nodding, mulling it all over.

"What I'm asking you for is Mom's ring. I would like to give it to Wanda. If you won't let me have it, I'll understand, I just want Wanda to have something of my past; to wear something of Mom's as she meant the world to me."

"Does she know?"

"About what happened?" he nodded. "Yeah, she does. I told her the other day."

He was quiet for a minute. "Sunny doesn't know," he half-whispered. "Well, I'm sure that she's put most of it together from what happened before we left using Jodi's memories, but I've never told her how we got here."

"Why not?"

"Never felt right."

I shook my head at that ever so slightly. "You're going to have to tell her."

"I know," Kyle said, standing up and walking over to his shelves. He quickly located whatever he was looking for and pulled out a small, blue box. I knew that it contained Mom's ring.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Kyle, please. There is nothing that I'm more sure about in my entire life."

"You know," Kyle started to say, weighing the box in his right hand. "This seems out of order. I'm older, so I should be the one proposing to the girl first."

"If I remember correctly, you were going to be the one married first, before everything got mucked up. Come to think of it, you would be the only one out of the two of us who would ever marry."

He frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, Wanda wasn't here when the world was all humans, was she?" he shook his head. "Wanda is my soul mate. If she had not come to this planet, I would have lived alone for all of my years. There is no doubt in my mind about that."

"You really do love her, don't you?"

"Yes."

He looked down at the box. "Well then, I give you my permission," he said, lightly throwing the box over to me.

"Are you sure?" I asked tentatively, half of me was wary that he was going to run over and snatch it out of my hands.

"Yep. Mom never said who got to use it; I just assumed that it would have been me, but now I can see that you deserve to have this on the finger of the girl that you love."

"Kyle I... thank you."

I couldn't think of anything else to say to him, so I looked down at the box in my hands. It seemed extremely small as I pinched the lid between my thumb and first finger to open it. Nestled in the blue silk was a small, simple ring. It was a single small diamond on a white gold band and it was simple, yet elegant. Our father had told us that he had saved up for a full year in order to buy his for our mother. He knew that it wasn't the fanciest one out there, but it didn't need to be, according to him.

As I looked at it, I could picture it on Wanda's finger for the rest of our lives. I knew that it was perfect.

"Thank you, Kyle. I really appreciate it."

"I know, Ian. It's not a problem. I just want to see you happy, after all," he said before playfully punching me on the shoulder.

"But what about you? If you ever got to that point, what would you use?"

He smirked. "I still have the one that I was going to use all those years ago. I know that it would be perfect."

I looked at the ring one last time before closing the lid and standing up to slide it in my pocket. It immediately felt about ten pounds heavier, just knowing the task that I had ahead of me. Kyle also rose and finished packing up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

"Ready?" he asked me and I nodded.

"We'll have to stop off at my room though; my main 'motivation' was to get Wanda a sweater. She'll think that I had it hand made with the amount of time that I've taken to fetch it."

Kyle snorted and pushed me out of the room and down the hall. We stopped off to get Wanda's sweater before going to meet up with everyone.

"Finally," Jared said, with a sigh. "I didn't think that you were ever going to show up."

"Har-har," Kyle retorted as Sunny flew to him and he automatically wrapped his arms around her.

Melanie just gave me a knowing look and a small smile before taking Jared's hand in hers. Wanda sidled up to my side and I snaked an arm around her tiny waist. I loved having her by my side; it made me feel complete to have her small body pressed against mine and to feel the fire that coursed through my veins.

"Alright, so now that yer all here, we can send you off," Jeb started his usual speech. "Ahem. Now please, do everything that you have carefully planned out so far...

"No stupid stuff," Jared interrupted.

"Stick with each other," Kyle piped up.

"Be on your guard at all times," Melanie chimed in.

"Sleep with one eye open," Wanda offered.

"And bring me back some cheesies," I finished off Jeb's famous farewell saying.

We all took one look at each other and burst out laughing.

"Very funny, you all. I want you to take it to heart though. Don't think that just because you have it memorized, you can slack off at all. You need to be on your game 24/7. I expect to see the same number of bodies returning to these caves that left, you hear me?"

We all nodded.

"It's time," Jared said.

Jamie, who had kept quiet during this whole exchange suddenly came running forward and knocked right into Mel, giving her one last hug. He whispered something to her and she squeezed him tight, kissing his cheek, as she could no longer reach the top of his head.

He then barrelled over to Wanda, and we were both nearly knocked over with the amount of force that he knocked into her with.

"Please be safe, Wanda," he pleaded.

"I promise you, Jamie. We'll be back here before you even know it, you watch."

"Ian, keep her in line please," he said, looking up at me.

"Sure thing, kid," I replied, ruffling his hair with my free hand.

"I mean it," he said, stepping away. "We've only just got Wanda back, and I couldn't stand to lose my sister."

I knew that Wanda would be crying at his words, and she ran forwards to give him one last hug and a kiss on his cheek. She let go and turned back to me, burying her head into my chest as I wrapped my arms protectively around her, letting her cry into me. She hated raids, as much as she agreed to go out on them, but she always thought that it was her 'duty' to go out on them. I was glad that this was her last one.

Jared nodded towards Kyle and I and we both nodded in return. Jared led Mel out the door that Jeb had opened and stepped out into the night. Kyle and Sunny were next in line with their bags on as the too stepped out.

"Wanda, it's time to go," I said to her softly.

"I know."

She smiled up at me before pulling away and bending to retrieve her bag. I quickly scooped both of them up and slung them over my shoulders so that she didn't have to carry anything. I didn't want her to tire herself out so early in the raid.

We walked over to the door and Jeb pulled her into a big hug, whispering something in her ear. She smiled a little and hugged him back before turning to take my hand.

"Bring them back," Jeb's last words to me were before we stepped outside with the others.

"On three," Jared instructed.

"One," he said.

"Two," Mel continued.

"Three," I said and we all started to run.

**Yay Twilight movie opening! Saw it on Friday night! : ) It pulled in a lot of money in NA alone, which I still think is silly how it only opened here and a few other select countries on Friday. Thoughts about the movie?**

**And the majority rules; everyone agrees that there should be a movie based on The Host. I totally agree. Since they're for sure making New Moon, they should make The Host along with it. A double whammy of sorts for us! : )**

**Link to ring is on my profile.  
Review! : )**


	9. Heading Out

**A/N: I seriously love all of you guys for the response that this story is getting! Thank you so much!! I don't have much else to say, so without further ado: the raid begins.**

**Thanks to mcena99, shouvley, TopKat90, vanilfrappe, Forever Your Angel, EdwardAlways, Whistling Pekoe, bookfan196, CullenNumber10, WhiteCamellia, TwiHard09, LadyMalfoyx and xScribbles819 for your lovely reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

We were running across the desert to the cache where we kept the vehicles; Jared and Mel were in front, Sunny and Kyle were just ahead of us while Ian and I pulled up the back. I looked sideways at him and felt a little guilty; he was running alongside me carrying both our bags. Surely it had to be heavy, but he wasn't saying anything about it.

I opened my mouth to ask him something, but the rest of my body had other plans. My feet tripped on what appeared to be nothing; the ground was relatively flat beneath my feet, but I still managed to fall to the ground and roll over.

"Crap," I whispered as I hit the ground.

I was not a clumsy person; neither was Pet, but I suppose the world was against me in that moment. Ian abruptly stopped.

"Wanda!"

He doubled back and before I had even stopped moving, he had scooped me up in his arms and carried me with one hand behind my back and the other around the back of my knees; effectively crushing me to his chest.

"Ian, I'm fine," I started to protest, but he shushed me. I knew that we weren't supposed to talk, but I really was able to run on my own.

I sighed and decided not to waste my time arguing with him; for the time being, at least. I closed my eyes and instead focussed on listening to his heavy breathing and his footfalls on the ground. All too soon I felt him slowing down and I opened my eyes to make out the distant shape of the rock formation that was our destination.

We eventually arrived and Jared met us at the mouth of the cave.

"Took you long enough," he noted as Ian passed by him.

"Yeah, well, Wanda fell, so I had to scrape her up," Ian explained as he opened up the door of the jeep.

"You can put me down now, Ian," I said to him, and he did, transferring me right into the driver's seat so I could crawl through to the back.

"Since when do you fall?" Mel asked from beside me where she was putting her and Jared's stuff into place.

"I don't know," I replied, turning around to look at her. "There must be something wrong with the imbalance of the world."

She snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

I rolled my eyes as Mel hopped out. She threw in a few more bags that Kyle tossed to her before running around to the passenger side and climbing in, slamming the door.

"You coming?" she hollered at the rest of them and I giggled.

Jared opened up the driver's door once again and Kyle helped Sunny into the Jeep. She was going to be sitting between Jared and Mel in the front just in case. Kyle wasn't a huge fan of this plan, so he was going to sit on the floor in the back with us, but directly behind her.

Ian very swiftly hoisted himself up and over the back of the Jeep, landing heavily on his feet beside me.

"Watch it, O'Shea," Jared warned as he climbed in and closed the door. "You break it, you replace it."

"Yeah, yeah," Ian responded, sliding down beside me. "Ready?"

I nodded while looking up at him and he put his arm around my shoulders, pulling my body into his. I rested my head on his shoulder as Jared turned on the car and backed out. It must have been particularly windy that night and I just didn't notice, but as Jared pulled forward, the wind picked up a lot and the dust flew around.

I cringed and made a small noise as it pelted my face and some of the sand got in my eyes. Ian pulled me closer to him and I buried my face directly into his chest. Ian's cheek nuzzled in my hair and I knew that the sand was getting him too.

"What's with you two?" Jared asked us.

"The sand," Ian replied without lifting his head out of my hair.

"Uh, Jared, they're getting killed back there with the sand beating on them," Mel said and I guessed that she had turned around to look.

"I don't feel anything," Kyle pointed out.

"But you're practically sitting in the front with us," Melanie pointed out. "Slow down a little, at least."

"We've got to keep going; we've got a schedule to follow."

I heard a dull thud and could only guess that Mel had hit Jared.

"Sorry, Sunny. I hope I didn't get you there," she apologized as the Jeep slowed down a little bit.

"No, no, you didn't hit me at all," Sunny replied.

I could feel the wind whipping through my hair and sending it all different directions. I was very tempted to reach up and try to fix it, but I realized that it would be practically useless. Ian moved me so that I was sitting on him more fully and he wrapped both of his strong arms around me.

I jumped into him as something sharp hit my arm and I could feel it stinging after the impact. Ian pulled his face from mine.

"What was that? Are you okay?" he was practically yelling over the combination of the wind and the noise of the Jeep.

I nodded my head and pulled his face back into my hair; I didn't want him to have to endure the sandstorm asking silly questions. It just stung a little was all.

"Wanda, are you sure? What was that?" he said softly in my ear.

I nodded and shrugged at the same time. I could practically feel him frowning. What I could really feel was Ian's hands lightly grazing over the exposed skin on my arms searching for something. I flinched when he came about a particularly tender spot and recoiled from his touch. Tentatively, his fingers touched it again before pulling them away.

"Wanda, you're bleeding!"

I shrugged again. What was a little blood after all? It would stop soon; it was nothing really to worry about.

I felt Ian's hand tighten around the sore spot, making it hurt more and as a result I hissed in pain.

"I'm sorry Wanda, but we've got to stop the blood," he apologized in my ear.

"With your bare hands?"

"It's all I've got until we stop. We'll be there soon."

I sure hoped so; this was the longest ride that I had ever taken from the cave to the rockslide. Eventually Jared slowed down considerably and I knew that we were nearing it. Once the car rolled to a stop, Ian was pulling me away so that he could look at my arm.

"Ian, it's fine," I said, trying to pry it out of his hand, to no avail.

"Wanda, let me look at it."

He gently turned my arm to look at the offending spot on my arm. I looked down to see a semi-deep gash and there was blood oozing out of it, all over his fingers and onto the floor of the Jeep.

"Jared's gonna kill me," I commented.

"No he won't," Ian said back to me. "And if he tries I'll rip his head off first."

I couldn't help but smile at his comment. The things that Ian would do for me never seemed to amaze me.

He began to dig through our bags looking for something. Ian pulled out one of his shirts and proceeded to wrap it around my arm rather tightly.

"Ow. No Ian, stop" I tried to wrench my arm out of his grasp, but he just held me tighter.

"Wanda. Just... hold....still."

"No. I won't let you use one of your clean shirts to wrap around my bloody arm!"

"Wanda, please. We can get more shirts, it's not a problem. What is a problem is how much blood that you're losing. I don't know if you've even noticed, but it has to stop."

I took that opportunity to look at it. I _had_ lost a considerable amount, but it was nothing that my body couldn't replenish.

"Wanda? What the hell? Why is there blood gushing out of your arm?" Mel had finally noticed and was proceeding to climb over top of Sunny and Kyle to come back to us.

"She got hit with something when the sand was flying around and she won't let me wrap it up with my shirt," Ian tried to explain and I nodded.

"What is all over my Jeep?" Jared shouted once he finally turned around.

"Oh shut up," Mel snapped at him, yanking the shirt out of Ian's hands and quickly tying it around my arm before I even had a chance to refuse.

"You've got to catch her off guard," she said to Ian, winking at us before leaping out of the Jeep.

She joined Jared and Kyle, who were standing behind the Jeep, near the car, and I listened to what they were saying.

"Alright, Mel, Ian and I will take the car, while Kyle, Sunny and Wanda will go ahead and drive the van," Jared said and Kyle began to nod.

"Absolutely not," Ian replied from beside me where he was still holding my arm.

"Come on, Ian," Jared said, turning to us. "You know that she'll be fine, and besides, Sunny will feel better with Wanda by her side. We'll be following her with the car, it's not like anything is going to happen."

Ian glared at Jared. "First of all, there is no way that I am riding in a vehicle that Wanda is not in. I agree to most things, but not that. You can't ask me to do that. Second, we have two souls, so to speak," he turned and grimaced at me for having to use the word, but I nodded at him letting him know that it was okay. "Why are we stuffing them both into the same vehicle? Wouldn't it be wiser to have Sunny in one car and Wanda in the other?"

It was silent for a moment before Melanie spoke up.

"He's got a valid point there, Jared. It _would_ be much smarter that way."

Jared sighed and looked down at Mel. "I guess you're right, but how do you plan on splitting everyone up then?"

It was Ian's turn to think this time.

"You, me, Mel and Wanda will take the van, Sunny and Kyle can follow in the car."

I quickly started nodding on that one and Ian gave me a small smile. Eventually everyone agreed and they began moving their bags to the right vehicle.

"Come on, Wanda," Ian said to me, pulling me to my feet.

"Ian, I can walk," I protested.

"I know that you can walk, I just don't want you to step in this blood; I'm just looking out for you, is all."

I stood up and stepped over the pool on the floor, lightly jumping down to the ground below before turning to reach in and grab my bag. Ian passed it to me instead before taking his own and jumping down beside me.

I walked over to the van and yanked open the passenger door.

"Sorry Wanda, you snooze, you lose!" Mel giggled as she pointed to the back of the van.

"Come on, Wanda," Ian said, taking my hand and leading me towards the back, opening up the door.

I put one foot up in the back of the truck and tried to step up, but lost my balance half way through and started to teeter backwards. Ian happened to be behind me and in an effort to keep me from falling reached his hands up to catch me and my bottom fell back into his hands. My eyes grew wide and Ian very quickly pushed me back up and into the truck.

I stumbled forward and fell into the van. I pretended to busy myself with placing my bag in the right place and then messing around with it some more while I hid the monstrous blush that currently resided on my cheeks. I wasn't sure how Ian was feeling about that situation, but I kept my back turned until I heard Jared start the car up.

"Wanda," Ian called out to me softly, but I didn't turn my head.

I was very embarrassed, but I wasn't sure exactly why. It's not like Ian had never touched me before, and at least it wasn't Kyle or anything. As I felt Jared step on the gas and wobbled to the side a bit. I ended up plopping down on the floor and pulling up my knees, hiding my face behind a curtain of hair.

I felt Ian slide over beside me.

"Hey, it's alright. Don't be embarrassed, Wanda."

I nodded and smiled, looking up at Ian. He leaned down and kissed my forehead, pulling me into his side.

After a few hours of the van rocking back and forth, I was being lulled to sleep. I could feel my eyes drooping and my head rolled on Ian's shoulder.

"Tired?"

I nodded my head and he chuckled.

"Let's lie down then, make you more comfortable."

"Ian," I began to protest, but he silenced me with a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Ian," I groaned and quickly looked towards Mel and Jared in the front seats, but they didn't seem to notice and were instead just holding hands and looking out the front window.

"Shh Wanda."

Ian wrapped his arms around my waist, lying down on his back and pulling me on top of him. I lay my head in the crook of his shoulder and placed my hand on his chest. Pretty soon my eyes were seriously closing and the soft movements of the car going down the road and I was fast asleep.

**Ian POV**

I looked down at Wanda sleeping in my arms and brushed a little piece of her beautiful blonde hair out of her face and smiled at her. I loved having her tucked into my side more than anything, it made me feel complete. I was very eager for this raid to be over with so that we could move on with our lives and not have to worry about going out of the caves and seriously risking everything.

Moreover, I was mainly looking forward to officially making Wanda my own, if she would have me, that is. I wrapped my arm more securely around her waist before laying my hand on top of her left hand that was currently residing on my chest.

"Is she sleeping?" Melanie asked in a soft voice.

"Yeah."

"Good. She's been too wound up about this raid lately. She needs the rest."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement with her. Wanda really needed to loosen up a bit.

"Where's our first stop going to be?" I asked Jared.

"Just outside of Flagstaff, in Tusayan, or somewhere around there. We should be able to make it there for nightfall if we keep on moving like we are now. Then the first place that we'll raid is St. George, once we get up into Utah. If we do anything down here, people are going to get suspicious."

I nodded again.

"Do you think that while we're near Tusayan or whatever we could stop off and see the canyon? I know that Wanda hasn't seen it, or anything about this country really off a highway, and I think that it would be great for her."

"I don't know," Jared started to say, and I knew he was going to say no.

"Oh, come on, Jared. Lighten up a little bit, you know that we'll be fine. Besides, I've never seen the Grand Canyon before either. I certainly don't want to die knowing that we were right there and I didn't get to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World," Mel spoke up, fighting in my favour.

"You're not going to die," Jared said to her through clenched teeth.

"Not yet, at least," I could practically hear her eyes rolling around in her head. "But we all are going to die, even you."

"Nah, by then the parasites will have made the average lifespan a thousand or something."

I couldn't let that one slide.

"The _what?_" I asked in a low, menacing tone.

"Relax you; you know that I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying that they'll have found a way is all," Jared defended himself and I snorted.

"Right."

"Please Jared; can't we go see the canyon? I've always wanted to and now's our chance!" Mel begged him one last time.

He sighed. "I'll think about it."

I knew that his answer was as good as we were going to get, and Mel turned around to wink at me. She thought it was in the bag, but Jared could change his mind about anything at anytime.

"Jared, we'll only go if it's safe," I assured him. "If we do end up going, I would prefer that this wasn't mentioned to Wanda; I want to surprise her."

I looked down at her sleeping form again and rested my cheek on the top of her head.

"I know, Ian."

"Thanks, Jared."

I could feel myself drifting off to sleep as well, and I couldn't think of a place that I would rather be. I was really glad that I had convinced them to let Wanda and I ride in the same vehicle. I wasn't crazy about the current place we were lying in; if we were to get in an accident, we were going to be seriously hurt, but I wasn't really going to complain.

What seemed like minutes later, I was being woken up by someone gently shaking me.

"Let's go, O'Shea, you've got to get up."

I could make out Mel's voice, but it seemed very distant.

"Don't make me come back there and scream at you," she threatened and my eyes flew open.

"I'm up, I'm up, where's the fire?" I looked around groggily to see that we had stopped somewhere and both Mel and Jared were turned around watching us. "What?"

Jared began to explain. "We stopped off so Sunny could go in to a small store and get us something to eat and drink. While she was checking out, the guy behind the counter told her to be really careful driving along these roads. Apparently there are Seekers set up a few miles down the road doing like a spot check thing. You know like how the cops used to do to make sure no one was drinking? Well this time they're doing it because supposedly there's been some sort of disturbance in the area and they don't know what's causing it."

I frowned. "Wait, first of all, Sunny went in alone?"

Melanie nodded. "She did spectacularly too. Best performance of her life; well, that I've seen anyways."

"So what do we do? What could be causing this 'disturbance'? Wait, it's not Area 52 acting up again, is it? It's probably visible from here anyways."

I felt someone smack my arm and I recoiled.

"Not funny, Ian. No, they've been noticing that people have been stealing their stuff; and no Soul would dare steal from another, so they're guessing it's an outside resistance."

I frowned. "But this is our first raid in months."

"Are you that dumb?" Jared asked.

"Hey, I take offense to that!"

"Whatever. We know that we're not the only rebel group out there, so we're going to need to contact the other groups at some point and set out boundaries for us to abide by. If this keeps happening, it's going to make it so much harder for us to continue with our raids."

I nodded. It was a valid point and definitely something that we needed to do in the near future.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked.

"Well, Sunny is going to drive the car in front of us, and Kyle's going to 'sleep' in the passenger seat with his little scar facing her."

I thought about those little scars that Doc had given all of us in the caves at Wanda's insistence; minus a few including Sharon and Maggie and the children, just in case we happened to go out of the cave. This was we could easily turn our heads and people would see the scar and not think otherwise.

"We need Wanda to wake up and drive the van behind her," Mel continued. "We should be fine once we get out of the city; there's no telling how many of these stations will be set up between here and there though."

"Yeah, that's true," I agreed.

I looked down at Wanda's sleeping form and deeply regretted having to wake her up; she desperately needed this sleep.

"Wanda," I whispered, moving another piece of hair out of her face. "Wanda."

She began to move around, just on the brink of sleep now.

"Wanda, wake up love," I called to her a little louder, running my hands up and down her arm. I could visibly see the effect that I had on her; the goose bumps trailing up her arm was a dead giveaway. "I know you're waking up," I said right into her ear.

"Just a few more minutes, Ian. Please?"

"Absolutely not, Wanda," Mel said, turning around in her seat. "We need you to do something for us."

Wanda did the cutest thing then.

She started to yawn and stretch herself out. She raised both her arms over her head and I could hear her shoulders give a little pop, while stretching out both of her legs at the same time. She made herself seem much so much smaller for whatever reason, but I thought it was adorable how she stretched herself out. I couldn't help but chuckle a little and rest my hand on her flat stomach as she recoiled and curled herself to me again.

"I'm listening," she told Melanie once she'd finished and I leaned in to kiss her forehead, resulting in a little blush painting her cheeks.

I wasn't really listening to Melanie explain the situation to Wanda, I was too consumed with watching her. When she heard about Sunny going out to the store alone, she sat upright almost immediately and shocked me.

"Is she okay? She must have been terrified! I have to go see her."

I tightened my hold on her instead and gently lay her back down beside me.

"Sunny is fine, Wanda," Jared said to her. "You don't need to worry about her one bit. She did spectacularly if I do say so myself."

Wanda seemed to visibly relax after Jared said that, so Mel continued.

".... so now there are Seekers all over that have set up these spot check stations around the city."

"What?" Wanda looked scared at this, and I knew it was because she was still remembering her Seeker.

"Shh, there will be nothing to worry about," I tried reassuring her.

Wanda frowned. "So you need me to drive the van through the city, right?"

It was my turn to be shocked. "Well, yeah..."

"Say no more."

Wanda sat up and turned to face the front of the van, determined to get this over with.

"We can sit here a few minutes, you don't have to do this right away," Mel tried saying to her, but Wanda shook her head.

"I can do it now," she said and Jared shrugged.

Wanda moved to the side to let Jared climb into the back before she launched herself over the seat and settled herself into it.

"You'll tell me where I'm going, right?" she asked, readjusting the mirrors and the seat.

"Of course, we're not going to make you drive practically blind," Jared said chuckling and I threw him a dark look. "You're just going to follow Sunny and Kyle mostly, and if we get split up for whatever reason, we're going to meet up somewhere."

"Alright," Wanda sighed, starting the van again and looking out her side mirror. "Here is Sunny and Kyle."

I watched as the car pulled up beside us, but I couldn't really hear what they were saying, so I sat back and rested my head against the side of the van. I knew then that my nerves were going to be shot by the time Wanda finished driving us through the city.

**Wanda POV**

I knew that I could drive the van, it would be no problem just as long as I knew where I was going; and I knew that they wouldn't lead me a stray. One quick glance in my rear view mirror told me that Ian was very nervous about this situation, which was silly. He had nothing to worry about, but there would be no convincing him until we were in the clear.

I looked in my driver's side mirror and saw the car pull up beside me with Sunny driving. Kyle rolled down the window as they neared and I did the same.

"You alright up there, Wanda?" Kyle shouted up at me.

I glared down at him. "Course I'm alright, Kyle. Thanks for your understanding."

He chuckled. "Just stay behind us, alright? I've got the directions of where we're headed, and it's pretty straightforward; stick to the highways if nothing else. I bet that we're guaranteed to run into at least one of these stations or whatever, just remain calm."

Kyle turned to face Sunny before looking back at me again.

"Sunny says that she has faith in us; and that a little run in with these Seekers will be harmless."

I laughed at that. "She's turning into a full-blown rebel before our eyes."

He laughed along with me before turning around. "Looks like we've got company"

I looked in my mirror to see a car coming up behind us.

"It'll be fine, you guys go ahead and I'll start to follow."

"Okay, see you all, be safe," Kyle said, starting to roll up the window.

"You too," I mumbled, rolling up my window and putting the van in drive.

I pulled out after Sunny and began to follow herd down the road.

After about ten minutes, Jared launched himself forward and plucked a CD out of the sun visor before shoving it into the slot in the dashboard. Momentarily, the sounds of some up-tempo beat began to fill the van. After a few bars, something started so sing in such a high voice that it was hard to distinguish whether it was male or female.

"What _is_ this?" I asked Jared, who was singing along to every word that came out of the speakers.

"Shh, let me savour this moment to go down in the history books," Mel hushed me and turned to watch Jared.

"_Dirty babe, you see the shackles baby I'm your slave. I'll let you whip me if I misbehave. It's just that no one makes me feel this wayyyyyyyyyy" _Jared sang at the top of his lungs.

"Oh my god," I said, covering my mouth with one hand and leaving the other on the steering wheel, trying hard not to laugh at him.

Ian was trying to move as far away from Jared as he possibly could get in the confined space they were in while Melanie wasn't even trying to hold in the laughter; she had thrown her head back and had tears pouring down her face.

"What is this?" I repeated and Mel finally calmed down enough to answer me.

"It's a singer who used to be on top of the charts before everything got taken over. His name was Justin Timberlake. Apparently souls don't like this kind of music."

"No, they don't. Especially when they're singing about 'bringing sexy back'" I giggled and shook my head. "So is it a group, or a man or something?"

Mel started laughing again. "I love her," she turned to Ian and Jared. "She's like an alien."

Jared stopped singing at once and I could almost hear Ian growling at her comment. She rolled her eyes and wrapper her arm around my shoulders.

"Oh, lighten up. You know that I didn't mean anything of it, right Wanda?"

"Right, Mel," I replied, grinning at her.

"In all seriousness, he was a very good looking pop singer," Mel continued telling me about him once Jared resumed his singing about all that is sexy.

She dug through the glove compartment and eventually pulled some sort of booklet out and thrust it in my direction. I took it from her and waited a moment before glancing down at it.

On the front was a picture of a guy in a suit smashing a disco ball.

"_Future Sex/Love Sounds_?" I asked incredulously. "It's no wonder that this was banned! This was probably one of the first things that they eliminated, especially with a name like that!"

"But what do you think of him?" she asked and I took another look.

"Well he looks awfully mad at that disco ball."

She sighed. "That's not what I meant, Wanda." She took the booklet out of my hand and flipped to another page before shoving it back at me. "Now take a look at him.

I glanced down at the black and white picture in front of me.

"Okay, he's pretty good looking," I said to her and giggled.

"Is that what you think?" Ian's voice said from beside me; and it was so close that I ended up jumping.

After I recovered from my little heart attack I chanced a glance sideways at him to find that he was looking back at me with a small smile on his face; his sapphire eyes glinting with laughter.

I turned back to the road for a few seconds and could feel his stubbly cheek resting on mine and I could feel that he was smiling.

"You know that I was just kidding with you, right?" he whispered in my ear and I nodded. "I wouldn't be too offended if you did have a crush on Justin Timberlake, you know. He _was_ pretty good looking; though I'm pretty sure that he's got a soul inserted in him now, so he wouldn't be singing about his sexiness anymore."

I blushed as Ian spoke and couldn't help but to smile.

"So you're not mad at me?" I asked.

"Why would I be mad at you for liking a superstar from years ago? I could never be. Especially since I know that I'm the one that you come home to at the end of the day."

Ian kissed my cheek and my small smile broke into a huge grin.

Mel sighed. "Just look at him," she proceeded to kiss a picture of him standing on a beach.

"At least you're not as obsessed as she is," he whispered before kissing my ear.

I nodded and he sat back.

Just as Mr. Timberlake's album was winding down the sun came up and the first of these Seeker stations started to come into view.

There was a lot of flashing lights and cars all over the road; traffic was also slowing down considerably. We ended up at a standstill right behind Sunny and Kyle.

"Okay, pull out your covers and get under," Mel ordered Jared and Ian as she took out the CD and flung it into the glove compartment along with her little booklet.

I turned around in my seat to see Ian give me a reassuring smile before ducking under a blanket and lying perfectly still.

"Is there a reason that they have to be covered up?" I asked.

"Well, how well do you think that go over with your law-abiding souls if they were to see two people sitting in the back without seats available for them?"

"It wouldn't go over very well," I admitted.

"Then there's your reason," she replied and turned her head to the side to act as if she was sleeping as a Seeker started walking towards the van.

He made the motion for me to join the line that was the furthest one on my right. I noticed that Sunny was directed to the one all the way on our left; we were going to be separated for sure now. As I joined the line, I became nervous at the prospect of talking to Seekers and having to lie to their faces. I wasn't sure I could go through with it.

**Here's where I need your help. I'm going to need a lot of names for different Souls, so if you can think of one, please let me know! I'd like to get my readers more interactive with the story, plus I know that you will have some great suggestions!!**

**Review! : )**


	10. Seekers and Situations

**A/N: So I feel really bad that it took so long to get out; and I really don't have a legit excuse other than the fact that it was really long and I had to cut it in two. I just kept on writing. As a result, the next chapter will be up in two days, give this one a chance to sink in :P I'm really sorry!!**

**Thanks to mcena99, vanilfrappe, vampire's kisses 4 me, LadyMalfoyx, xScribbles819, WhiteCamellia, shouvley, Forever Your Angel, EdwardAlways, TwiHard09, Twilight101101, CullenNumber10, Anaeli and Madame Meg for your awesome reviews! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

"Wanda, chill out," Mel instructed me as she looked over in my direction. "Why do you look like you're about to vomit all over me?"

My face was probably a lovely shade of green by this point.

"I'm nervous," I admitted to her, looking away. "I... what if I can't do this?"

"You can do this," she said to me, looking out at the Seeker station that was about five cars ahead of us now. "If anyone can do this, it's you, Wanda."

"Only because the rest of you can't," I replied and she shook her head.

"You're one of them naturally. If any of us, God forbid, were a soul, we would still be awkward around them."

I felt tapping on my seat and looked around to find Ian kneeling beside me with the blanket pushed back off his head.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him while inching the car forwards another length.

Without saying a word, he sat up and quickly kissed me.

"Wanda, move up!" Mel said quickly.

I pushed the top of Ian's head down and beneath the blanket as I moved the car up again. I looked over and Mel was feigning sleep quite effectively with her face turned towards the window; her breathing low and controlled.

All too soon for my liking, I had to roll down the window again as a female Seeker began walking up to the van. The van rolled to a stop and I tried not to let my heart beat too fast.

"Good Morning!" the Seeker called out to me cheerfully. "You're certainly up early!"

I plastered a fake smile on my face and looked right at her as she flashed a beam of light into my eyes; the light bouncing everywhere and she deemed it safe to approach the car.

"Yes, I have to be up early to make this delivery today," I replied.

She came and leaned her elbows against the side of the car.

"What kind of work do you do...? Sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"My fault, sorry; it's Shining On The Ice."

"Ah, the Bear Planet," she said with a huge smile on her face. "I'm Cold Fire; been to a lot of planets, but the Bears is not one of them! Perhaps after this term," she shrugged. "Well, what is it that you do?"

"Oh, sorry; my partner Sky and I own a Flower shop just outside of Los Angeles," I explained, feeding her lies. I watched as I said Mel's 'name' as the beam of light flickered over to her and held my breath. Evidently she noticed the scar on Mel's neck and turned the light off, apparently satisfied.

"Really? So what are you doing all the way up here?"

"We're off to deliver for a wedding."

"On a Tuesday?"

"_Crap."_ I thought to myself. "_We're done for."_

"Well, you know that Saturdays aren't the only day people tend to get married on anymore; besides, it's what the bride wanted, so I'm not about to argue."

She laughed. "That is very true. Where are you headed?"

I internally tried to recall a map of the Mid-West.

"Denver."

"Oh, that's a lovely spot! That will be a beautiful wedding! I love the mountains in Denver; love to vacation there!" Cold Fire gushed and I smiled politely. I wanted this to end right now.

"Well, since you're not from around here, I'd best warn you about the disappearances that have been occurring in this area," I nodded, encouraging for her to continue. "There have been a lot of supplies; you know, medical, food stores, disappearing from the area, not to mention _souls_ are being taken as well."

I did my part and shuddered at the last bit.

"Right, so you must be on your way, I realize." She paused. "Your partner looks dead on her feet; better continue before she wakes!"

"Yes, thank you, Cold Fire for letting me know; we'll be on the lookout for any funny business."

"Alright then. If you see anything suspicious, Shining on the Ice, please don't hesitate to get to your closest Seeker station." I internally shuddered, but diligently nodded my head.

She patted the side of the car and stepped back.

"Have a good trip! I hope that it's a safe one!"

"Thank you so much for telling me about these happenings," I said to her. "It would be scary if we weren't warned or anything."

She smiled, waving her hand while nodding, allowing me to drive away.

Once we were about five miles away from the station and I couldn't see the lights any more, I began to speak.

"We...we're clear." My voice was shaky and I was still nervous about having to lie to the Seeker.

"Pull over," Ian instructed and his voice was loud in my ear.

I made to turn on the signal, but Jared stopped me.

"No, she can't."

"And why the hell not?" Ian seethed. "She can't drive right now; she's scared half to death! You drive!"

"I can drive!" I protested, but Jared cut me off.

"It's not safe. If she pulls over and I drive and we run into another station, we're all dead."

"How do you figure?"

Jared sighed. "Well, we would have to try and switch, and if we did it while driving, we'd crash and they'd find us; or if we pulled over, the Seekers would get awfully suspicious, don't you think?"

Ian blew out a breath and it tickled my ear.

"Mel, switch with me."

She began grumbling. "There's no reason to be so damned demanding about it. You could have at least said 'please'."

He sighed. "Mel, will you please switch with me?"

Mel rolled her eyes, but undid her seatbelt and climbed through to the back all the same.

She got about halfway through between the seats when Jared pulled her arms and she fell rather unceremoniously into his lap. Ian wasted no time in jumping into the passenger seat where he turned to face me.

"Seatbelt," I reminded him and I heard Ian huff before reaching and snapping it into place.

"I would feel a whole lot better if you would just let me drive."

"Ian, just trust me; I'm fine. I can drive with no problems; you don't need to worry about me."

I wasn't just trying to convince Ian, I was telling myself this too. Sure, I was spooked out about my run in with the Seeker, mostly because the word still makes me shudder; no matter how nice she was, but I was fine now that I was away from her.

I could still feel Ian's eyes on me and I glanced sideways at him and gave a small smile. He reached over and took my small hand in his, giving it a small squeeze.

"I'm fine," I reassured him.

"So we own a flower shop outside of California?" Mel asked and I glanced in the rear view mirror at her to see the silly smile on her face.

"Well," I began, a blush creeping up on my cheeks. "I had to think of something, and why we would have a big van like we do and lumpy shapes in the back."

I heard Jared's deep, booming laugh coming from the back of the van ad I liked hearing it; it was something that we didn't get to hear a lot these days. He had been sort of reserved lately, and it was good to see him letting loose a bit with his singing earlier and genuinely laughing now.

"I suppose we made good flowers for her to believe us then, huh?"

I glared at him. "It was a believable story!" I tried to defend myself. "She didn't come searching the van, did she? No, so obviously it was a legit story."

I heard a smack come from the back and Jared began to whine, so I could only guess that Mel had hit him again.

"Mel, it was a fine story," Ian said, reassuringly to me, and quickly glared back at Jared.

I smiled at Ian. "Thanks."

We drove in silence from then on; Jared didn't trust the light enough to pop in another one of his obscure CDs. I would have to find out what else he had stashed away some other time, I figured. Ian continued to look out the window for a little while longer, still holding my hand, but he dropped it once the snores started to rip out of his chest.

I could hear Mel giggling in the back with Jared and I was scared to turn around to see why.

"Do I even want to know?" I asked quietly.

"Oh hush you," she said back. "I'm just laughing at Ian's snores. I haven't witnessed them in a long time; you know, since before I got my body back and all."

I sighed. "I wish you would stop referring to it as that, it makes me feel horrible."

"I'm sorry, Wanda. I just can't think of any other words to describe it."

We sat in silence again after that while I tried to come up with some words, to no avail.

I looked in the mirror to catch Mel's eye so that I could admit defeat, but I noticed that she and Jared were curled up on the floor fast asleep.

"Fantastic," I mumbled to myself. "Everyone's asleep and I have to drive this beast to God only knows where."

I looked over my left shoulder to switch lanes and turned on my signal when the windshield wipers started to go haywire and spray the fluid all over, wiping it off at Mach Four speeds. I don't even know how I did it; the control for the wipers was on the other side of the steering wheel.

Rolling my eyes and sighing, I changed lanes and turned off the rabid wipers.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way," I apologized to no one in particular.

"_Great,"_ I thought. "_Now I'm speaking to the van. Great one, Wand, people are going to think that you're psychotic now."_

I leaned my head back against the head rest and settled into my seat; I had a feeling that this was going to be a long ride by myself.

Two hours later I was going bonkers.

They were _still_ sleeping and I was starting to drift off myself, which I knew wasn't the safest plan. I desperately wanted to pull over, but I knew that I couldn't risk getting out of the van to get something to keep myself awake and leaving them in the van, even if they were sleeping. If something were to happen, I would never forgive myself.

I looked over at Ian, who had reclined the seat and had his mouth hanging open a little bit. I smiled and turned back to the road. In a desperate attempt to keep my eyes open, I turned on the radio just a little bit and started bobbing my head. I made sure that the volume was down really low so that I wouldn't wake any of them up.

Some squeaky clean pop star's song came on the radio and she claimed to be someone called "Christina Aguilera". I jumped at a loud voice.

"What the hell is this?"

I whipped around to see Jared staring at the radio with disbelief written all over his face.

"What is she singing about?"

I listened for a few minutes.

"It seems to be about our perfect Earth. Actually, it seems almost like a ploy to get souls to settle on Earth. But I don't know why, it's not like there are any radios or music like this on any other worlds. Humans only exist on Earth, therefore, their music only appeals to the people of this world."

I could see Jared shaking his head and Ian started to stir.

"Wazgoinon?"

I giggled.

"Sorry?"

Ian very adorably rubbed the sleep from his eyes before stretching as much as the cramped space would accommodate and looking at me.

"Why is there yelling and," he paused. "Weird music playing from the speakers."

"Look, I'm sorry. I was practically falling asleep and I needed to wake myself up somehow," I began apologizing.

"Wanda, it's not your fault; you're only human. It was a lot of us to ask that you stay awake and drive all this time. I bet it didn't help matters much when we all fell asleep too."

My heart swelled when Ian classified me as a human. When I went out on raids, they always made me feel closer to the human species.

"It's fine," I reassured him with a smile.

"I'm sorry, but I can't listen to this... crap no more," Jared piped up.

"What's wrong with it? She's got an amazing voice..."

"She's singing about taking over my planet," Jared interrupted me.

"Oh," I practically whispered.

Ian took my hand again and gave it a light squeeze, conveying to me that it was alright.

"Ian, open up the glove box and pull out the third case. Inside under the first CD there's another one. Pop that sucker in! I'd do it myself, but I'm occupied at the moment."

As Ian dropped my hand to rifle through the compartment, I glanced back to see Mel still fast asleep in Jared's lap as he lightly ran his fingers through her soft, dark hair.

Ian eventually found whatever Jared wanted and threw it in, as the same girl's voice floated from the speakers.

"Is this more old stuff?" I asked.

Ian nodded and looked at me apologetically.

"That it is; Miss Wanda. I've got a strange urge to culture you in our ways pre- Souls."

"Oh," I said again.

We sat and listened and thankfully Jared didn't start singing this time around.

"I see that she's a supporter of women's rights," I noted and heard sniggers coming from the boys.

"What?" I snapped.

Jared recovered first.

"The person rapping right now is the same girl who wrote and sang a song solely about the different ways she has sex with men." I blushed at that and tried to slink down in my seat. "And what you get out of this song is women's rights?"

"Shut up."

They both dissolved into fits of laughter again and I shook my head.

"See, this is why they got rid of your music," I muttered.

Mel began to stir then.

"Track eleven."

We all exchanged glances.

"What was that babe?"Jared asked.

"I said, put it on song eleven," she said, sitting up and yawning. "Now."

"Yes ma'am," Ian muttered, changing the song to her request.

"I heard that!"

A slow song began to fill the van and Mel started to sing, very well too.

"_Every day, is so wonderful, And suddenly it's hard to breathe,"_

She continued to sing while I listened to the lyrics. Jared tuned up his vocal cords in time for the chorus, but I stopped him.

"Jared, hush up! I want to listen to this, we can play it again for you to sing, if you'd like."

He nodded and grumbled something incoherent while I continued to listen to the lyrics. The song eventually would down to its end.

"Wow, that if a very powerful song," I commented.

"I agree. The video was amazing too, Wanda," Mel answered me.

"Turn it back! Turn it back!" Jared chanted from behind me and Ian obliged, throwing me a look.

The best part of listening to Jared butcher this wonderful song was at the end when she sang all these high notes. He tried desperately to reach them and I thought he was going to pass out by the color on his face. I couldn't help but laugh at him and I was pretty sure that Ian, Mel and even Jared himself had joined me.

"Glad to see that you are all so supportive," Jared said, sarcastically.

Hours later, after putting dozens of songs on repeat so that Mel and Jared could sing along, we arrived at a particularly nasty one.

"What _is_ this?" I asked incredulously and Mel laughed.

"This was her 'breakout' phase. She decided she was no longer a teeny bopper sensation and instead went along with playing the part of a stripper."

I mentally searched Pet's memories and came up with the definition, proceeding to blush.

"Yep," Mel continued, popping the 'p'. "Those certainly were the days."

"Back when she wore those little barely there underwear, chaps and a bra top," Jared reminisced.

"I remember that now."

I felt three pairs of eyes looking at me and questioning my sanity.

"H-how?" Ian asked. "Is it P-Pet?"

I shook my head. "While I you are in deep space, they always give you a briefing on the planet you're going to, so like, I know about everything that has to do with anything about Earth; starting from the age of the dinosaurs up to when... when..." I couldn't continue.

They sat in silence for a minute before Jared whistled, trying to diffuse the awkward moment.

"Freak," Mel commented with a smile on her face.

"She is not," Ian defended me, smiling fondly at me. "Are we almost there? How long does Wanda have to drive for?"

Ian turned around and glared at Jared, and I could see his arms raised in surrender.

"Just give me a sec, alright?"

I could have sworn Ian growled, but I ignored it. Jared crawled forwards and consulted the map.

"Another twenty minutes and we'll be well outside city limits."

"We haven't hit another Seeker station yet, have we?" Mel asked.

I was about to shake my head, but then I saw the flashing lights in the distance and groaned.

"You spoke too soon."

"Assume the positions?" she asked, holding up the blankets.

"Yes," Ian said, dropping my hand and turning to the window.

I sighed. At least soon after this I wouldn't have to drive any more. I was looking forward to curling up with Ian in the back, letting his familiar large frame wrap around me and make me feel safe.

"The music!" Mel hissed and Ian hit it off; the van became eerily quiet.

We slowed to another station and again I was directed into the lane on the farthest right, for whatever reason.

I started to get nervous again.

What was wrong with me? I am a confident person, so why was my resolve crumbling every time I came into contact with a Seeker? I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths as we neared the Seeker. He motioned for me to roll my window down and I obliged like the good little soul that I was.

"Morning!" he called out, a little too cheerful for my liking. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

I nodded, assuming that if my mouth were to open, my voice would be shaky.

He winked at me then. "What's a pretty little soul like you doing out here alone at this time of day?"

_What?_

"I...uh...I..." I could practically feel the anger radiating off of Ian. "I'm just going up to visit a friend in Chicago," I squeaked weakly.

"And what would your name be?" he asked, taking a step closer. I shied away at his advance.

"It's Drops of Water."

A creepy smile lit up his face.

"Well that's awfully coincidental; mine is Rolling Oceans. The dolphin planet is something special, isn't it?"

I nodded and swallowed as he moved closer. I hoped that he wouldn't ask me too many questions about that place; I had never been there, after all.

"I believe that I should escort you to wherever it is that you're headed," he offered before I saw his eyes narrow and his jaw tighten as he caught sight of Ian.

"Who's that?"

I glanced over at Ian. "My boyfriend." I hoped that it was alright with Ian that I told him that.

"Well," Rolling Oceans snapped. "That changes things?"

"W...was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Get out of the city," he growled and I nodded like a bobble head figure.

The Seeker backed away front he van, glaring in my direction as I frowned back. I wasn't sure what exactly I did to him to make him so upset, but obviously it was bad. Before I could throw the van into drive, he was pointing at me and the open road in front of me. Faster than you could say "insertion", but still obeying the traffic laws, I sped out onto the highway.

"What was that about?" I whispered almost immediately, but no one responded; we were still too close.

Once again, I waited until we were about five miles past the station before I gave them the all-clear.

"Pull over," Ian instructed.

"Is it safe?"

"I don't care, just pull over."

I signalled, pulling onto the shoulder and before I had even come to a complete stop, Ian had leapt out on to the gravel.

Once I had actually stopped, I rested my elbows on the steering wheel and placed my head in my hands. What was so wrong that I was so completely oblivious to?

My door opened and I felt someone lean over me and heard the click of my seatbelt being taken off. I looked up as Ian proceeded to pick me up out of the van and carry me to the other side, hidden from the highway. I saw that his jaw was set and his eyes blazed with something. Passion? Lust? Desire?

I couldn't figure it out. He placed me on my feet before lifting my chin up and crashing his lips to mine.

My eyes widened as he startled me, and I wasn't sure how to react. Ian's lips began to move on mine, but I wasn't comfortable doing this in a place so open.

"Ian," I whispered on his lips.

"Wanda, please," Ian begged, his soft, full lips pressing down upon mine and his arms wrapping around me.

I gave in and closed my eyes, leaning in to his rock hard body and started to gently move my lips. Very soon, he guided me backwards until I felt my back against the side of the van, effectively pinning my body between it and Ian's.

A voice screamed out in my head, '_What if someone sees us?'_

Startled, I broke my lips away from Ian's and heard him groan.

**Ian POV**

I groaned as Wanda removed her lips from my own.

"What now?"

"We could get caught! We're so out in the open, and the Seekers are right there and..."

"Wanda," I signed, but she continued.

"They could easily just come and scoop us up! Jared and Mel could take the van and drive away, but..."

I silenced her by pressing my lips to her. We broke away for air, and I looked down at her swollen lips before taking that opportunity to speak.

"Wanda, you can't worry so much about things like that. It won't happen, we're far enough away. Even if they did come, we could jump into the door and drive away, nothing would happen to us."

She still looked not entirely convinced, so I pulled her in close, crushing her small frame to my and resting my chin on her head. She tentatively wrapped her arms around me and sighed. I knew that it would take her a lot of convincing to let her know that everything would be okay, but I would try my hardest to make her see. She seemed to be on-edge about something the entire time before this raid, and still now.

I supposed that having to lie to two Seekers in one day might have had something to do with it; I know that my nerves were shot from having to put her up to that. If there was a way for me to be able to do what Wanda was doing, I would take over and make her ride in the back, nice and safe. For the time being, I had to be strong for her and be her rock.

"Ian, we need to get going."

I sighed, knowing that she was right, but I didn't want to let go of her just yet. Reluctantly, I gave her one last tight squeeze before releasing all but her hand and leading her to the back of the van. I wrenched open the door that seemed to be sticking and helped Wanda into the van. Once she was inside, I took a quick look around before hopping in myself and slamming the door.

I saw that Wanda was already sitting and had the blanket wrapped tightly around her.

"Ready?" Jared asked from the driver's seat, looking back at me.

I crouched down and nodded, feeling Jared pull the van away from the curb as I continued to look at Wanda. She was all curled up, her small arms wrapped around her legs and she had those pulled up to her chest; she was essentially in a little ball. I wasn't sure whether to approach her or not, she might have been mad at me. Had I crossed the line when I kissed her outside?

I really hoped not; after that Seeker was hitting on my Wanda, I felt oddly possessive and territorial, and it was sort of animalistic, but I needed to claim her as my own. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have forced that upon her without Wanda's consent, but I had to do it for myself. Still, it was no excuse.

I knelt down onto my knees and crawled across the floor towards her, which was oddly difficult at the insane speeds that Jared was probably driving at. Once I reached Wanda, I sat behind her, but a little to the side, so I knew that she could see me.

"Wanda? Are you okay?" I tentatively asked, mentally preparing myself for her to lash out, though a part of me knew she would never do that.

"I'm just thinking," she replied softly.

I bit my lip. "About what?"

Wanda turned her body to face me. "What went on with that Seeker that made you so upset? I keep going over the situation in my mind, but I can't think of a reason and it's making me very frustrated. I feel like I'm stupid or something for not figuring it out."

Her admission tore at my heart. "Come here," I said to her, opening my arms.

Wanda crawled over to me and fell into my lap. I could practically feel the heat of her blush on my shoulder where her face happened to land. I chucked silently and closed my arms around her, lightly tracing my fingers up and down her back.

"So what is it? Is it because I'm a soul that I don't understand? I've searched Pet's memories over and over again, but I still come up with nothing; mind you, she doesn't recall anything from her body's human days, so that doesn't help much either."

"Wanda, no, it's not because of who you are that you don't understand..." I started to say, but was quickly cut off by Mel.

"Don't lie; Ian, it has everything to do with her being a soul, and I don't mean it negatively." I sighed, but she continued. "She didn't know what was happening back when you started to like her either."

"Human emotions are not something that I've encountered much before," Wanda mumbled, trying to defend herself.

"I know, Wanda," I said to her. "You didn't do anything wrong, I was more mad at that stupid Seeker than anything. He didn't even notice me until near the end of that stupid conversation! I was five seconds away from losing it and revealing us all to him; whatever it took for him to shut his mouth and leave you alone."

"I still don't get it," Wanda said, sitting up to look at me, a piece of blonde hair falling in her eyes. She made to move it out of the way, but I beat her to it, tucking it behind her small ear.

"He was flirting with you, honey," Mel said, surprisingly tame. "He liked you when he barely even knew you."

"Oh. But why?"

"Because you're an attractive, young female, who wouldn't want to take you home? Honestly Wanda, sometimes I want to just squish you you're so damned cute," she answered with a wink. "That and boys are pigs."

"Hey!" Jared and I both shouted at the same time while the girls giggled.

"Do you understand now?" I asked her and she nodded.

"Ye-ye-yeah," she answered, stifling a yawn.

"Oh, I'm sorry Wanda," I apologized, rolling up the other blanket and fluffing it like a pillow. "Here, lie down and get some rest."

"I'm okay," she began to protest, but I gently pushed on her shoulder and she gave in, lying down still curled in the blanket.

I watched as Wanda turned on her side before looking over her left shoulder back at me.

"Will you lie with me, Ian?"

I smiled at that simple request. "Of course I will."

I lay down beside her and she pushed the make-shift pillow under my head.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked.

"This."

She gently pushed my head down onto the pillow with one of her tiny hands before turning back over on to her side and pulling my right arm under her head. She then repositioned herself so that her back was pressed up against my chest; her head in the crook of my arm. I nuzzled my face in her hair, marvelling in its softness and floral smell, wrapping my left arm around her and pulling her closer. Within minutes, I could hear Wanda's steady even breathing that notified me that she was fast asleep.

"Why were you so motherly towards Wanda there, Mel? I half expected another smart-ass comment from you about the Seeker?" I asked quietly and she turned around.

"Wanda is my little sister. I'm several years older than her, actually, a lot more than several, and having her in my body brought us even closer that I could have ever imagined getting towards a soul. She's new to this planet, Ian, she hasn't experienced all that we have, and so that new situations that arise, or things she doesn't understand, we have to be patient and try to explain to her carefully so that she _does_ understand. She can search Pet's memories all she likes, but if Pet has no human memories, from her body's days before Pet lived there, than it is useless. I feel like I have to take her under my wing and guide her through this strange planet."

"She's not a little girl," I whispered, looking down at her. Granted, her body looked a little young, but Wanda herself was certainly no child.

"Sure she's not a little girl, I have no doubt about that, but she is new to this planet. You have to remember that she's only been here a little over a year, so essentially, she is a newborn to Earth. It is our job to teach her about the way we live without overwhelming her."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it through her eyes. She came to this planet and requested an adult host body. She learned all she needed to know about our history right up until the souls started taking over, and then probably a little more. She's older than our great-great grandparents; she's seen and experienced a lot in her long life. What she was never prepared for was me. I wasn't supposed to still be there; I was a broken Host, damaged, she was simply supposed to extract information and expose us rebels.

"Imagine what it would be like to have someone constantly yelling at you, telling you that what you're doing is completely wrong, even though it's what you've been taught and bred to do. She was supposed to be inserted in my body, get my information and leave again. What she wasn't expecting was to be led by me away from the life that she had started on Earth and search for all of you. She went against every moral and everything that Souls live for when we walked into the desert.

"Imagine being told that one this is going to happen and then all of a sudden you're against the Souls; you're part of a rebel clan intent on destroying this life that they have built. She's had to give everything up to fight with us. I can't imagine having to do that. So yes, anything new that we do would overwhelm her."

"I have never thought about it that way."

Looking down at the angel in my arms, I truly got a good perspective of her life, thanks to Mel. It wasn't fair that she had to give up her lifestyle to fit in with us; it wasn't fair that we hadn't given her a choice either. It was stay in the caves, or die. Obviously, anyone who valued their life would stay.

I was glad that Wanda had decided to venture to Earth. I was thankful that she had listened to Mel and come to us. I know that my life has certainly changed because of her. If she hadn't taken a chance and given everything up, I wouldn't be lying here with her in my arms. I never would have thought it would be possible for me to love another. Now I know, and it's because of my Wanda.

**Have I mentioned that I'm sorry for the late update? Because I am.**

**But! I am very happy with the Soul names that you guy have come up with! I could hug each and every one of you in thanks, but it's sort of hard and awkward to do through a computer screen. So instead, I'll send virtual hugs and a basket of fresh-baked warm cookies. : )**

**I'm going to use all of the names I get at some point in this fic, and I've started to use some of them in this chapter. There will always be room for more in my story, so please if you think of any, send them my way! : )**

**Review! : )**


	11. Suspicious Behaviour

**A/N: So I sort of forgot that I was in a first aid course all weekend, so you get the chapter one day later, and I added a bit during my lunch breaks, so it's a little bit longer! I meant to comment on this last post, but I forgot. The response to Jared's singing was incredible! I'm so glad that you guys liked it! I just thought that the situation just needed something to lighten it up a little.**

**Alright.**

**Thanks to mcena99, All The Good Names Are Taken, Anaeli, TwiHard09, Madame Meg, vampire's kisses 4 me and Edward Always for your kind reviews! I will be responding to them tomorrow, just haven't had the time!**

**Thanks to my awesome reviewers, we've hit 100 reviews! I am so elated! I never actually thought that I'd hit 100, but here we are! : ) I send truck loads of cookies and a new chapter your way! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Ian POV**

My dreams were filled of Wanda. I pictured Wanda and myself in the future. The one dream that was the most prominent was the last one that had us sitting together on our front porch somewhere.

_"I was looking out at our two eldest children playing soccer in the yard. I was holding our toddler in my arms, who was fast asleep, and Wanda was giving the baby a bottle beside me. _

_Our children were the perfect combination of the two of us. Wanda insisted that they looked more like me, but I disagreed. They all had Wanda's blonde hair with just a slightly darker tone due to my brown hair color. All of them had bright blue eyes like me, and small noses like Wanda. To me, it didn't matter what they looked like; they were an extension of Wanda and I and a proclamation to the world of our love. They could have horns and webbed feet for all I cared, I would still love them the same._

_"Look at them squabble," I said to her, nodding my head towards the two boys who were arguing over the goal._

_She looked up and smiled, looking more radiant and beautiful than ever. _

_"They remind me of you and Kyle."_

_I chuckled. "You think so?"_

_I looked out as our eldest son proceeded to tackle his younger brother to the ground. I gaped open mouthed at them before making to move the child in my lap to the porch beside me so that I could go break them up._

_I felt a small hand on my arm and looked at Wanda._

_"What?"_

_"Calm down. There's no need to interfere; just watch."_

_She smiled fondly at me and the turned to the boys. I listened to her and also turned to watch them, glancing down at the sleeping child in my lap first._

_Sure enough, they quickly rolled over and off of each other. To my amazement, the older one jumped to his feet and reached out his hand to help his brother up off the ground. Then they proceeded to hug each other and continued playing._

_"See? Just like you and Kyle."_

_I glanced down at Wanda who was holding the now sleeping baby and felt my heart swell. She looked down at her with such love and adoration and tenderly touched her thumb to our daughter's cheek. I was the happiest with Wanda by my side, and was glad that I got to live my life free and without a worry. _

_I was going to put up the play set in the backyard that night for the kids, they had been bugging us for one for a long time, and I had been putting it off. This way, I could work at night and when they woke up it would be there. I knew that they would be so excited to see that and I couldn't wait for them to go to bed so that I could start. _

_They boys started shouting loudly about something again and the child in my arms began to stir. She wiggled around before rubbing her eyes and opening them; just like her mother did when she woke. I couldn't help but to smile at the action that was so familiar to me._

_She looked up at me and gave me a small smile before sitting up and hugging me. I wrapped my arms tight around her and kissed her forehead before she turned to Wanda and then looked back at me. Her brows furrowed as she looked back and forth between us._

_"Momma?"_

_"Yes, love?" Wanda replied, smoothing out her dress and smiling. _

_"How come your eyes are different than Daddy's?"_

_I stiffened and turned to Wanda. This was not something that any of our children had asked us before. Leave it to our daughter; the observant one, to question it. Do we tell her the truth? It would be awfully hard for a two year old to comprehend. I didn't even notice the boys until they were seated right in front of us._

"_Well Pumpkin, Mommy wears contact lenses; they help her to see."_

_I chanced a glance at Wanda as she answered to see that she was calm and composed; quite the opposite to what I was feeling on the inside. _

"_But I thought that we got rid of them years ago. Our teacher said that they invented a machine and a process so that you didn't have to wear glasses or contracts." _

'_Leave it to the eight year old to make fools of us,' I thought to myself. _

_Our daughter put her hands on her hips and glared at us._

"_No really! How come they're different?"_

"_That's a story for when you're older, dear," Wand answered, standing up with the baby and the bottle in her arms. "Come inside and help Mommy with your baby sister now."_

_That did the trick. A huge smile was quickly plastered on her face and she jumped up and down in excitement. Wanda held out her hand for her and she took it, following Wanda into the house._

_Before Wanda disappeared into the house, she turned around._

_"Perhaps you could explain it to the boys?" I swear that my eyes bugged out of their sockets. "Tread lightly; be careful," she warned before closing the door._

_I turned back to the boys who were looking at me expectantly. How could she leave me to do this? I massaged my forehead before speaking._

_"I suppose I have to tell you then?"_

_They both nodded eagerly and I sighed. _

_"Well you see the Earth wasn't always in..." No, they wouldn't understand. They're eight and six. I repeated that to myself as a mantra. How to explain this to children? _

_"A few years back, before you were born, there weren't just humans like you and me that lived here on Earth...."_

"Ian!"

I heard a hissing sound and cracked one eye open to see Melanie turned around facing me.

"I've been calling your name for the last five minutes, Ian."

"Sorry," I mumbled, almost incoherently, stretching a little before pulling Wanda's soft, warm body closer.

"We're almost there," Jared spoke, apparently either not hearing or ignoring my apology. 'We stopped again and talked to Kyle and Sunny. She's going to go ahead and get us rooms so that Wanda can sleep."

"Why do I always seem to be asleep when we stop?" I grumbled.

"It's not like it maters anyways, Sunny is the only one to get out. She did get us some things to eat though."

Mel reached in front of her and rummage around for a second before tossing something back. I tensed for whatever was about to make contact with my body just as it did. I saw a bag of cold cut meats and then a few buns in a bag as they sailed over us.

"There's drinks too, but I'm not about to throw them."

"So there is a God," I said softly into the back of Wanda's head.

She moaned then and started roll over towards me. I moved back and guided her around until she was positioned on her back. Wanda's head was still resting on my arm, and it lolled to the side a little so her face was in my direction.

I smiled fondly down at my sleeping Wanda and propped myself up a little to look down upon her. I wanted so badly for the dream that I had just woken up from to come true; well, minus the telling our kids about the Soul situation at ages six and eight. Surely they would learn about that in history in some older grade. I wished that times were different so that I could give her a life like that; a life where she would have no worries except for looking after our house and children.

Would she even want children? I didn't know the answer to that question. I would have to ask her.

Instead, here she was, lying to a Seeker and living with a group of rebel humans. My pocket in which my Mother's ring resided in seemed like it weighed a hundred pounds then. I sighed lightly and bent over to kiss her forehead.

"Okay, we're exiting the highway now, keep quiet everyone. Mel, don't look out the window."

"So demanding," she muttered under her breath, but I caught it. She then became intensely interested in the map in front of her.

We kept driving for a few miles and I was quite content to just lie with Wanda. My free hand had left her waist and was now stroking her hair gently. She began to stir as we were pulling into the hotel.

"Gather!" Jared declared and I rolled my eyes.

"Wanda," I whispered, getting my face down super close to hers.

"Waandaa," I called again and she groaned. "We're at the hotel now, love. Sleep some more, I'll carry you inside."

She began to lightly shake her head, those beautiful silver eyes still closed.

"No," she mumbled.

I chuckled. "It will be fine. You need your rest."

That caused her to stir even more. She stretched out her legs and I moved a little away from her body while still maintaining contact. She then did the thing that I love the most about when she just wakes up; the very same thing that my child did in my dream earlier when she woke. Wanda reached her hands up and very adorably rubbed her eyelids before scrunching them up and opening them, blinking a few times.

"Hey you," I smiled down at her, getting lost in her endless silver eyes.

I could see her looking up directly into my own eyes, and I continued to stare into her eyes. After a few seconds; a small blush crept up on her cheeks, painting them a beautiful rose color.

"Why are you blushing?" I asked her, touching our noses together lightly. This caused the color to deepen.

"Why are you staring at me?"

I smirked. "I'm not staring. I'm merely gazing upon the love of my life."

She smiled at that and I could see some of the color disappearing from her cheeks.

The back door opened and exposed us to the world then, making the color intensify ten-fold on her cheeks. I turned to glare at whoever had interrupted our moment.

It was Kyle. Of course it was.

"Get up; we're going into the room in threes, and I was elected to come with you two."

"Room?"

"Sunny was only able to get one room, so we're going to have to share it."

Before I was able to say anything, Kyle spoke up. "Jared and Mel already called dibs on a bed."

I sighed and rolled away from Wanda, sitting up at the same time. She bit her lip before sitting up with me. Together, we crawled from the back of the van and I hopped down first, turning around to help Wanda.

"You know, I can do this myself."

"Enlighten me," I replied. "It's my job to spoil you."

"Is not," she huffed while Kyle laughed.

"Shut up."

I turned back to the open door and grabbed our bags, throwing them directly at Kyle's face. His grunt was a pleasing sound to me; I hit my target. The last two things I grabbed was the bag of meat and the bag of buns; Wanda and I could eat later if we wanted.

I jumped back out of the van and saw that Wanda was wearing one of the knapsacks while Kyle was holding the other.

"I thought I told you that you weren't supposed to carry the bags," I said, walking over to Wanda and holding out a hand to take it off of her.

She shook her head. "You do enough, Ian."

Wanda placed a small hand on my cheek and I couldn't help but lean into it. I saw Kyle shake his head.

"Let's go."

He started to walk away and I grabbed Wanda's hand, following in his wake.

"What time is it?" Wanda asked me and I shrugged. I hadn't looked at the clock in the van, and my watch had run out of batteries years ago, but it was still very light out.

"It's four o'clock," Kyle answered her from up ahead and she nodded.

I smiled. There was still time to convince Jared to let us go the Canyon. If Melanie was on my side for this, like she seemed to be, then it would be easy to peer pressure him into letting us go. I could always drive the van, I supposed, but I'd rather Jared drive so I could pre-occupy Wanda and truly make it a surprise.

Kyle led up a flight of stairs that were on the outside of the building and up to our room that was apparently on the second floor. He stopped in front of a door and proceeded to pound on it.

"There's no need to break in," Wanda said to him.

The door opened and revealed Sunny.

"Wanda!" she smiled at her and I released Wanda's hand so that she could greet her friend.

They walked into what I presumed was the bedroom and I caught a glimpse of Melanie sitting on the bed before the door closed. Kyle dropped my bag on the floor and flopped onto the couch beside Jared, who was pointlessly flicking through channels on the television.

"You know that's pointless," I said to him, making my way to the small kitchenette to make myself a sandwich. "The souls don't ever have anything good on TV."

Jared muttered something that I didn't hear before settling on some sort of cartoon and stared at it mindlessly. Kyle came to the kitchen with me to grab a drink.

"Have you asked her yet?"

I shook my head.

"Why the hell not?"

I sighed. "Because, Kyle, it's not as easy as that. I have to put some thought into this. I want it to be perfect. I don't want Wanda's engagement to be something that she looks back upon and remembers it as some sort of spur of the moment thing that I didn't think through first. I want it to be special."

He thought about it for a moment.

"Do it today; when we go to the Grand Canyon. We can have some sort of signal thing when you think it's time and the rest of us can go find something else to do. Who else knows? Mel? Sunny? I think that Mel should know out of the two of them, no offense to Sunny of course. I love her to death, but I think that since they're like sisters she should find out first. How does that sound? You can look out over it, put your arms around her and then just get down and..."

"Kyle," I interrupted, putting down the knife that was in my hands and looking at him. "Why are you trying to help me? I thought that you were the one who was totally against Souls. You didn't want me to fall for Wanda, and now you're trying to help me get engaged to her?"

"Shh," he shushed me and I quieted down.

The only sound in the room was the mindless chatter from the TV and Jared's light snores; he had evidently fallen asleep. The Soul's version of cartoon weren't exactly The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, after all.

"You're my little brother, Ian," Kyle quieted his voice, which I never thought would be possible and slung his arm around my shoulders. "I just want to see that you're happy. I honestly never thought at that you would be truly happy after what happened to Mom and Dad. I was worried about you for awhile. But I can see that even though Wanda's a Soul, you love her like nothing else on this planet."

I frowned down at Kyle's arm before answering.

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

He chuckled.

"Not funny, Kyle. Have you been hit over the head again? Maybe one time too many?"

I pulled his head down and proceeded to check it over for obvious signs of trauma. He then grabbed my mid section and tackled me to the ground.

"You idiot!" I hissed at him, trying to push him off.

"You wanted your ruff-and-tuff brother, so here he is."

I shook my head and tried to kick him off to no avail.

"What the hell, Kyle, get off!"

I hit him in the shoulder, but I knew that would do him no good. Instead, I rolled us over towards the sitting area and we crashed into the back of the chair that Jared was sleeping in. He awoke with a grunt and looked over the back of the chair at us.

"For God's sake."

He stood up and walked around the chair, grabbing a hold of the neck of my shirt and proceeded to pull up, effectively gagging me so that I got off of Kyle.

"You two are assholes, do you realize that?"

"It's just him," I nodded towards Kyle who was still lying on the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, just blame it on the older brother," Kyle grumbled.

"What did he do now?"

"A series of things." I aimed a kick at Kyle and hit him in the shin.

"So what were you going to do if the girls came out and saw that little scene?" Jared asked. "You know that it would have upset both of them. I'm not actually sure who would be more upset; Sunny who hates violence in any way, or Wanda, who would have been convinced that Kyle were out to kill you; even though she wouldn't voice it."

I sighed. "You're right."

I returned to the kitchen to finish fixing my sandwich while Jared returned to the chair and Kyle remained lying on the floor like the idiot that he was. I finished and went to sit on the floor, placing my snack on the coffee table in front of me.

"Will you look at this show? This is despicable!" Jared commented and I started to pay attention to what he was watching.

I couldn't follow it.

"What's happening?" I asked, taking a huge bite.

He snorted. "Well, the premise is that there is a super hero; Super Soul is his name, and he solves crime on all of the planets that they have taken over. Guess who the villains are, every time, in every world?"

I shrugged, shifting my position on the floor.

"Humans."

"What?! That's ridiculous!" I shouted, probably a little too loud.

Jared shrugged. "Well, that's how they view it, I guess. We are the bad guys, the villains, ruining their perfect society."

"That's horrible," Melanie's voice said, causing Jared and I to jump. I almost choked on the massive bite I had just taken, but managed to retain my composure and look up to see the girls exiting the bedroom.

**Wanda POV**

"Wanda!" Sunny said to me after she had opened up the door to our hotel room.

I smiled and felt Ian let go of my hand as I followed her into the room and Kyle and Ian followed us. She kept smiling and led me to the bedroom.

"We're in here," she explained and I stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

Mel was already sitting down on the bed, smiling at me.

"What?"

"Let me see what you brought with you," she said to me, getting up and taking my bag from me.

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

She stopped searching through my bag and looked at me. "I may have to send you into a department store with a list of clothing for you to buy. You need to update your style. You know, just because we live in the caves doesn't mean that we have to look like dirt people."

I giggled. "Who are you, the fashion police?"

"Officer Stryder, at your service," she said to me with a giggle, standing up and making a gun with your hands.

I stood up in front of her and saluted before bowing. That act alone had us both in stitches while Sunny just sort of sat there.

"Oh, come on Sunny, admit it. You thought that was funny too," Mel said, resuming her search through my bag.

I plopped myself down beside Sunny and gave her a hug, which she quickly returned.

"Don't be so worried, Sunny."

"I can't help but to be a little worried today! I had to talk to those Seekers and lie to them and try to keep Kyle safe and everything!"

I nodded. "Granted, your first day was a little tough, but it should be smooth sailing from here on out, right Mel?"

She grunted and tossed my bag aside, evidently not satisfied with its contents and pulled her suitcase closer to start rifling through it.

"Trust me you had it easier, Sunny."

"How?"

"Well for starters, you just had Kyle and the car; you didn't have to worry about making a cover story for a van and hide two passengers in the back. You went into the stores and they didn't suspect a thing, it's very natural, you'll get used to it," I reassured her. "You also got us this room too!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry that it's a bit small, it's all they had left and I wasn't about to argue with the guy."

"Of course not, Sunny! This is a fine room, I'm very proud of you!"

"So you think that I'm showing Kyle that I'm meant to be here?"

Silence ensued.

"Sunny, is that the main reason why you came out on this raid?" Mel asked softly.

She nodded reluctantly.

"Oh, Sunny! Kyle knows that you're meant to be here!" Melanie bounded over to us and jumped up beside Sunny. "He's an ass if he doesn't think that. I'd be glad to beat him up for you, if that's the case," she offered.

I thought Sunny's eyes were going to pop out of her head, so I quickly intervened.

"She's joking," I gave a pointed look at Mel, who shrugged and resumed looking through her bag.

I chatted lightly with Sunny for a few moments before Mel interrupted.

"AHA! I _knew_ I had it in here somewhere!"

Sunny and I looked over to see what the ruckus was about and I saw Mel pull out a very bright yellow sundress from the depths of her bag.

"Stand up," Mel ordered me, walking swiftly over to us.

"Why?" I asked, very confused.

"I want to see if this will work."

"Why?" I repeated.

"Because you're going to wear it." She held the dress up in front of my body and smiled.

"Why?"

"Oh stop it! I want you to wear this and look cute, is that so hard? Here, hold this," she thrust the dress in my direction and I held it before it fell. I didn't think that she would be too happy if it hit the ground.

Mel dug around a bit before looking at me. "Well, put it on! Don't just stand there!"

"Okay! Okay!"

I threw a pleading look at Sunny, who couldn't do anything more than sit there and smile at me. I rolled my eyes and took off my shirt before putting the dress over my head before removing my shorts.

"Happy?" I asked, turning to face Mel.

She looked up and appraised my look. "Good. Now put these on."

She then flung a pair of yellow shoes at me that bounced off the bed before I caught them.

"Ohhhh no. You know me!"

"Yes, I do. I also know that you're going to put those shoes on and let me curl your hair just a tinge and then you're going to look gorgeous."

I sighed. "I can see that I'm not going to win this."

Mel just crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"If I'm dressing up, you two had better be too!" I pointed at Sunny and Mel.

To my amazement, Mel pulled a green dress swiftly out of her bag, dangling a pair of black shoes with one finger.

"Ready. Sunny?"

Sunny got up and crossed the room before pulling out a blue dress and a pair of red shoes.

"The world is against me," I muttered.

"Sit down," Mel ordered and I closed my eyes to wait for her to be finished.

Less than two minutes later she deemed me ready to go and ordered me to put those death traps on my feet. Once I had completed that, I walked over, surprisingly stable, to the mirror to inspect myself.

I was wearing a little yellow sundress with halter straps that did up at the back of my neck. The dress gathered under my chest and then flowed gently down to my knees. My shoes were also bright yellow and matched the dress. They were strappy and made me look taller. My hair was slightly curled and looked shorter than normal.

"You clean up good, kid," Mel said, coming to stand behind me.

I turned and looked at them then.

Mel was wearing a very green dress. It had capped sleeves and three buttons down the front. There was a thick yellow belt around her middle that made her waist seem absolutely tiny. She also had on a pair of black heels that looked absolutely lethal. Her hair was piled on top of her head and she was wearing a fair amount of black eye make-up as well.

Sunny, on the other hand was dressed rather conservative. She had on a strapless little blue dress that was gathered at the top. It fit her figure flawlessly and hugged every curve. She looked magnificent. Sunny had on a pair of red heels and had put her hair into a loose pony tail.

"For God's sake Wanda, take the bra off!" Melanie practically yelled at me and my hands went to my chest in defense.

"You're not three! You don't need that! Plus, the black straps throw the whole look off!"

"Mel, no..."

Before I had time to finish, she had somehow ripped it off of me and thrown it across the room where it had landed on the back of the chair at the desk. I sighed.

"Anyone care to tell me where we're going?" I asked, defeated.

"Why do we have to be going somewhere?"

I ignored her.

"Sunny?"

She shrugged. "I know just about as much as you do."

"Okay," I decided to try a different angle. "Why do you have nice dresses and shoes in your bags? Did you know that this was coming? That we would need them? Because it seems a bit coincidental that you would have these with you and handy."

"You never know when you're going to need a nice dress and a good pair of shoes," Mel replied and I glared at her. "Jared got me that sundress a long time ago; I just haven't found a place to wear it. Besides, it looks better on you."

Yelling could be heard from the other side of the door then and Mel rolled her eyes.

"Boys."

She stalked over to the door and paused with one hand on the handle.

"Ladies, shall we?"

"I suppose there's no choice then, is there?" Sunny giggled.

"You go first," I pushed her slightly ahead once Mel had gone out of the doorway.

She stepped into the room and I followed.

"That's horrible!" Mel said.

"What's horrible?" I asked and the boys then turned to look at us.

All of their jaws just about hit the floor.

"You look gorgeous," Jared said to Mel as she bounced over and plopped herself down on his lap, giving him a big kiss.

I blushed as Sunny gasped.

"What happened to you!" She dropped down onto her knees beside Kyle, who was residing on the floor for whatever reason.

"Don't you dare ruin that dress!" Mel called out in warning.

"He was just being Kyle," Jared said before more kissing sounds were heard.

Sunny was taking care of Kyle and Mel and Jared were otherwise preoccupied, so I looked over at Ian.

He was looking straight back at me, and grin creeping up on his face. I couldn't help but blush at the amount of attention he was giving me, and I attempted to hide behind my hair. In a flash, he was at my side, sweeping the hair away from my face.

"Don't hide, Wanda. You look ravishing."

I turned crimson at his words and he chuckled before kissing my forehead.

"Come sit down."

I followed him to the couch that he was sitting in front of and sat while he jumped up to get something. I frowned but Ian shortly returned with something in his hands.

"I figured you were starving," he shrugged, handing me the sandwich that was in his hand.

"Absolutely not," Mel huffed before launching herself off of Jared and running into the bathroom, returning with a bath towel.

"Here," she threw it at Ian who caught it easily. "To protect her dress."

"A bib," I said, deflated.

Ian on the other hand, found it amusing and made a huge production about tucking it into the front of my dress, but I was growing impatient.

"If you don't finish in the next five seconds, I'm going to take a bite, and if this gets all over my dress, you'll have to face Mel's wrath."

He sped up and I took a bite.

"So what was horrible?" I asked through a mouthful of food.

"Chew your food!" Kyle yelled out.

"Ew," Sunny said.

"It's just this cartoon," Jared began to explain. "The villain in this is a human."

"Yeah, well, what do you expect," I replied after I had swallowed. "Humans are the single thing that Souls fear the most. Humans are the only ones with the capability to rebel and try to take back their planet. No other creature would try to do that, and if they tried, it would be too late for them."

The room fell silent.

"I guess," Jared said and I took another bite.

We sat and watched the silly show until I was finished and it ended.

"Ready Wanda?" Ian asked, standing up and holding out his hand for me to take.

"Where are we going? Mel didn't tell me where, she just made me get all dressed up."

Ian just smiled and reached down, taking my hand and pulling me upright.

"You'll see."

We were the first ones out of the room with Kyle and Sunny following close behind; Kyle had leapt up off the floor to follow. Ian helped me down the stairs so that we wouldn't have to make an unscheduled hospital visit on our first night.

"There's something I want to show you," Ian whispered in my ear, dragging me towards the van. "It's a surprise."

**Okay, so little bit more fluff for you all. I love writing it. I love Ian and Wanda. Perfect combination. Unfortunately, we're going to have to start getting into the not so fluff soon, but I'm thinking two or three chapters until then. Shan't be long! **

**All links to the girls dresses and shoes are on my profile. I had an awesome time looking for them! I love shoes! :P**

**Review! : )**


	12. But I Hate Surprises

**A/N: Yay for an update! : ) And yay for all the reviews that I got for the last chapter! You guys are seriously the best! I'm going to try and get another chapter out in the next day or two; I'm aiming for the 24****th**** to put one out, so we'll see! **

**Thanks to WhiteCamellia, shouvley, vampire's kisses 4 me, TopKat90, xScribbles819, hearts-4-stars, 23, mcena99, TwiHard09, Anaeli, Pink-Amethyst, vanilfrappe, Kiara212 and Eagle Girl12 for your wonderful reviews! :)**

**Wanda POV**

Ian helped me up and into the back of the van while Jared and Mel grabbed the front. Sunny hopped in behind us and Kyle slammed the door upon entering. I neatly tucked my dress under me and made to sit down gently, trying not to mess up Mel's pretty dress.

"Wait, take this" Ian said, holding onto my arm, effectively stopping me from sitting down on the dirty floor.

I waited while he took a blanket and carefully folded it up before placing it on the floor and gestured for me to sit on it with a huge smile on his face. I couldn't help but to smile back at him as he guided me down onto the floor and I folded myself down on it. Ian sat beside me and Jared began to drive. Kyle hadn't quite sat down when we peeled away from the curb and ended up on his backside on the floor.

I turned my head into Ian's left arm to try and hide my laughter. Kyle would either lash out or laugh with me, but there was no telling exactly how he would react. Ian smoothed my hair gently so that he didn't mess it up, and I could feel his body shaking also.

"Are you laughing at me?!" Kyle demanded of Ian, since his face was visible to everyone.

"Oh, don't get mad at him, Kyle. It was pretty funny; you should have seen your face!" Sunny said to him and I chanced a glance at the pair of them.

Sunny was smiling fondly at Kyle who was still sprawled out on the floor and traces of anger were still littered across his face. He looked around at all of us before cracking a huge grin. That's when I could not contain myself anymore and I burst out in laughter.

Ian's arms wrapped around me as I laughed and Sunny lightly patted my arm. I calmed down after a few moments and looked up at Ian.

"It was funny, I'll agree with you on that," he whispered down at me before kissing my nose lightly.

"So where are we going anyways?" I asked Ian quietly in hopes of him actually answering me.

"Not a chance," he answered me, chuckling slightly. "You'll just have to wait and see."

"But how come Mel and Sunny seem to know?"

He smirked. "I don't know, exceptional hearing?"

I frowned. "Not funny Ian."

"I know I'm sorry."

"It just seemed to be awfully convenient that they both had beautiful dresses packed; and Mel had two, while I didn't have anything nice packed at all."

"Wanda, I would have packed a dress for you if you owned one, but you don't."

I thought about that. It was certainly true.

"You and Sunny will just have to go shopping for some nice clothes," Melanie had turned around in her seat and was evidently listening to our conversation.

"Why don't you just come?"

"You don't trust Sunny's sense of style?"

I shook my head and looked at Sunny apologetically. "No, it's not that. It's just that you seem to know exactly what I'll need and when I'll need it, so why don't you just come with us?"

"Have you fallen down and smacked your pretty little head or something?"

My jaw dropped and I gaped open-mouthed at her before regaining my composure and blushing at her words instead.

"It's not a pretty one," I mumbled so that no one could hear me.

I saw Mel narrow her eyes, seeming to almost read my lips and disagreeing with what I had said.

"I don't know if you've realized it yet or not, but _I'm human._"

"I know that."

"So I can't exactly waltz into a store with you two, can I?"

I quickly realized my mistake and let my head drop and shook it lightly. I felt lean fingers under my chin, trying to lift it up, but I turned my head away instead.

"Wanda, please just look at me," Ian pleaded.

"I'm sorry Mel, I just forgot," I said to her, still keeping my head down and my eyes averted from everyone else's.

"Why are you not looking at me?"

I shrugged and could head the buzz of conversation around us, seeming to leave Ian and me in our own little world for a minute.

"I feel ridiculous, that's why," I finally admitted to him.

"Don't Wanda, you forgot, its human nature to forget things."

"But that's just it; I'm not a human. I may have human tendencies, but that's because I'm a human host. Just like I have bear tendencies when I'm on the Bear planet, or would have Dolphin qualities if I were with them. It's no different no matter what world that I'm on. Inside I'm just a Soul."

Ian sighed and pulled me close to him.

"You're not just a Soul, no matter what you say, Wanda, you're so much more than that. You are the love of my life and my heart and soul. Nothing else matters but that."

I smiled and hid my blush in his chest and we sat in silence for a little while. I was looking out the front window to pass the time, but there wasn't much I could see. The angle that we were sitting on made it virtually impossible to make out the surroundings, so instead I focussed on the sky.

It was quickly becoming dark out; I could tell that the sunset wouldn't be too far off. I was sort of disappointed, I really wanted to see the first sunset of the day once we were out of the caves, and so far all I had caught a glimpse of was the sunrise this morning.

I saw the brilliant blue color that the sky had been all day start to fade as the oranges, reds and purples danced and mixed with the blue. I knew that this would be absolutely stunning if we were able to get out of the van and witness it with our own eyes. I couldn't remember the last time that I had seen a sunset. I noticed that there was a ribbon of pink that seemed to weave in and out of the other colors and I smiled. It was stunning, even if I was only able to see a small part of it.

I sighed and leaned into Ian further. At least I would get to watch it from the floor of the van, there were always other days, right? Out of the corner of my eye I caught Jared making a funny motion with his hand; he pointed his index finger at the roof before twirling it in three circles. I frowned, it didn't seem to make any sense and he continued driving as if nothing had happened.

"Wanda?"

I looked up at Ian and he held a piece of cloth in front of my face. I looked at it and then back up at him.

"What is it?"

"It's a blind fold," he replied, chuckling.

"Let me guess, you want to put it on me?"

"Bingo."

I thought about it. "Why?"

"It's a surprise."

"I hate surprises," I grumbled, turning away from the offensive item.

"Please Wanda? Humour me and wear the blindfold, I promise that you won't be disappointed."

"It's not disappointment that I'm worried about, Ian, it's just the thought of a surprise. You know that I hate it when you guys do stuff for me."

"Trust me, it's worth it. I would do anything for you, you know that?"

I nodded. "I know."

He gave the cloth a little shake and I sighed.

"A... alright."

Ian instantly smiled and kissed my temple before bringing it closer to my face.

"Close your eyes," he whispered in my ear and I obeyed.

The fabric was softer than I initially thought it would be; it was like soft feathers resting on my skin. Ian pulled it tight, just enough so that I couldn't see out of it, but not so that it was causing me any pain. After he finished, I felt him take my right hand and give it a light kiss and I smiled, blushing a little. He wrapped his arms back around me and we kept on driving for a few minutes before Jared stopped.

"We're here," he said in a sort of dark tone and I could hear the slamming of doors around me.

That's when I started to panic.

What if this was a set-up? What if they were leading out into the middle of nowhere to drop me off a cliff and leave me to die? What if this was their whole plan for the raid? This time we'll get rid of Wanda, next time it will be Sunny...

How could I have been so stupid to believe them after all this time? I thought that they trusted me and that in turn could trust them. Now they were leading off into somewhere in the desert wearing a blindfold. For all I knew, Kyle or Jared could be carrying a gun and they're going to shoot me.

All these possibilities ran through my head until Ian instructed me to crawl on my hands and knees in a direction that he pushed me towards. This was it; once I reached the end of the van, my life as we knew it would be over. I had always wanted to die as a human; this would just be a little premature from what exactly I had in mind.

Searching around with my hands, I found the edge of the van floor and swiftly swung my legs around so I was sitting on my bum, ready to jump off to the ground below. What I wasn't expecting was two hands to grasp me around my ribcage and lift me down and out of the van.

"Thank you," I thanked my mystery helper.

"You're welcome," Ian chuckled and took both of my hands in his.

I could hear sounds around me, and because of the blindfold, that sense was heightened. It was quiet where we were, wherever it was, except for the crunch of the ground under our feet and the murmurs of the others. I could smell the fresh air, so obviously we were outside.

"Be careful that she doesn't trip and fall or anything; that would be one heck of a landing," Jared shouted at Ian, laughing. I could hear the smack as Mel's hand probably made contact with his arm again.

Ian placed a hand on the small of my back and guided me forward a few more steps. The ground was steadily becoming more uneven as we walked further, and my fears were heightening. Ian wouldn't do that to me, would he? I thought that we felt the same way about each other. I was on the verge of hysteria before Ian stopped, but I didn't feel him stop until he pulled on my shirt.

"Hey Wanda, we're here. There's no need for you to go no further unless you like pain, I suppose."

I frowned at that, but stopped moving and felt Ian gently tug my arm back a few steps. I heard his footsteps move around in front of me and could feel the close proximity that our bodies were in by the electrical current that was running across the front of my body.

"Nervous?" Ian asked and I nodded.

"Why? You don't have a reason to be nervous, Wanda."

"I know, I just don't like surprises," I whispered. Ian must have stepped closer to me, because I could feel my warm breath hitting something and bouncing back off of it; I could feel it on my own face again.

"I'm sure that you'll like this one though," he whispered back.

Ian ran his hands through my hair until they came to rest upon the tie at the back of my head. I could feel his nose touching mine and before I could think of the possibilities of what might happen next, Ian's soft, full lips were touching mine.

I responded quickly, not caring if anyone was watching; I wanted one last kiss from him before something bad happened to me. What I was not expecting was for him to untie the blindfold and let it fall between our faces. We were still kissing, but I kept my eyes closed and instead reached up to move the blindfold out of our way.

Ian slowly pulled away before kissing my nose again and then both of my eyes.

"Open your eyes, Wanda."

I took a deep breath before opening them. I was looking right into Ian's sapphire eyes and I could see that he was smiling at me. Wordlessly, he took a small step away from me and stood beside me. I could literally feel my eyes bugging out of my head as I took in the scene around me.

We were standing near the edge of a huge formation of rock. There were a few shrubs around our feet, but for the most part, it was pieces of red rock. I looked out and could barely see the other side of the huge crevice. In the middle between this side and the other were lots of other rocks, and it looked like a very long way down to the bottom. I craned my neck just a little to see more into it.

To my amazement, down at the very base of this wonder was a small river. I didn't think that something this big could have running water down inside of it.

"Where are we?" I asked in wonder.

"The Grand Canyon," Mel replied, looking just as awestruck as I was.

"It's big," I observed and everyone laughed.

"You're right about that, Wanda," Kyle said. "And this isn't the widest part of it either."

"Or the deepest," Jared added.

"Well it's magical all the same," I said.

"So you like this surprise?" Ian asked me, his mouth all of a sudden right next to my ear.

I shivered at the contact hat his breath made with my left ear before nodding.

"I suppose so."

"That's not how it works, Wanda. You either liked it or I screwed up again, simple as that."

I turned around to face him, frowning.

"What do you mean 'you screwed up again'? You never do that."

He shrugged. "Sure I do."

"Ian..."

"Shh, I want you to enjoy this moment here right now."

I couldn't argue with that, so I turned back to look at the Grand Canyon, reaching out for Ian's hand, which he took and gently laced his own fingers through mine.

**Mel POV**

"Jared! Sunny! Kyle!" I whisper-yelled at them all so that they would look at me.

"What?" Jared asked in an annoyed voice.

"We should leave," I said to him with a nod of my chin in Wanda and Ian's direction.

I could see Sunny smile. "You're right."

She gently took Kyle's hand and began to lead him away from them as Jared and I followed. Once we were far enough away, Jared bounded ahead, claiming that he wanted to explore. I sat down on the rock and brought my knees up to my chest, just taking in the breathtaking views.

"Mind if I join you?"

I looked up to see who was asking; it was Kyle.

"I don't own the land."

Kyle sighed and sat down beside me.

"Where's Sunny?"

"She's not a big fan of heights or big, open spaces, so Jared took her to explore the rock around the edge, promising not to get too close to it."

I snorted. "And she actually believed him?"

"No, but he won't go anywhere near it and scare Sunny if he even dared."

I swallowed, sure that Kyle had threatened Jared should anything happen to her. He certainly had changed since Sunny came to the caves.

"Do you think he'll do it?" Kyle asked me and I turned to him, confused at the random statement.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ian and Wanda," he said, rolling his eyes. "I thought that you knew, the way that you packed a dress for her and everything."

"I do know, I just didn't know what in the world you were referring to."

"My question still stands," he said to me.

I looked over my left shoulder back at Wanda and Ian. She seemed to be blissfully happy standing with Ian and he looked sort of nervous about something, but still holding her hand. Ian was looking more at her face than at the scene in front of him, which was a bit stilly, who knows when he'd be able to come back here.

"I don't know."

"I'm sort of hoping that he will do it here and now," Kyle said, leaning back on his hands.

"And why is that?"

"Because I gave him such an amazing plan for him to do it here. You know how she loves to see the first sunset when we're out," I nodded and he continued. "Well, wouldn't it be awesome if he did it here, the first sunset in a wonderful place like this?"

"Yes, it would be nice." I then leaned over and placed the back of my hand on his forehead. "Who are you and what have you done with Kyle?"

He chuckled. "I'm just happy for my little brother is all."

"Are you sure that you're not sick or anything? Didn't get an insertion behind our backs, did you?"

"Mel, it's not like that."

"Then what's it like? I've noticed that you've sort of tamed yourself a little since Sunny came to live with us."

He nodded. "You know how she doesn't like violence, and well, my past isn't exactly innocent or anything."

"Very true."

We sat in silence for a minute and watched the sun begin to rapidly set.

"What about you, do you wish that Jared was about to propose to you?"

I thought about it for a minute.

"It would certainly be nice, and I wouldn't say no to it, but our relationship is still relatively new; we have so many things to explore about each other that we didn't even touch before I was... you know."

He sniggered. "Really?"

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter." I pushed Kyle and he wobbled before regaining his balance and stopped laughing.

"How about you and Sunny? You going to pop the big question any time soon?"

"No," he responded almost immediately.

"Why not?" I asked with a frown.

"She's a Soul after all, and I'm not Ian.

"So?"

"So I love Sunny, I really do, I just can't exactly wrap my head around marrying a Soul instead of the Jodi that I know is still in there."

I nodded.

"My situation is a bit reversed from Ian's. He fell in love with the Soul on the inside, and to him it doesn't matter what body she is in, he will always love her for who she is. She could be a cat and he would still love her. But with me, I had Jodi before, I'm in love with the human that she was and it's a bit difficult for me to accept that Sunny is here to stay, even after all this time."

"It's a fair point, I was just curious."

Right then Jared and Sunny returned to us. Jared sat in behind me and placed his legs on either side of mine, pulling my upper body back so that it was resting against his big, toned chest. He then hugged me tight. Sunny sat beside Kyle and he loosely draped his arm around her waist. We all sat in silence and watched the sun set.

**Ian POV**

I stood holding Wanda's hand and hoped to the Gods above that she didn't notice that my pals were sweating; and it had nothing to do with the heat outside. I took a deep breath and looked at Wanda, trying to pass it off as looking at the Canyon in that general direction.

My free hand was stuck in my pocket, fingering with the small box that seemed to live in it. Was this the right time? Kyle's words echoed through my head,

_"You can look out over it, put your arms around her and then just get down and..."_

"Ian?" Wanda's melodic voice brought me out of my little world.

"Yes Wanda?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For bringing me here, for letting me watch the sun set. I thought that I was going to have to watch it from the floor of the van."

"I wouldn't let that happen. I know how you love to watch it on our first evening out, and I wasn't about to make you miss it."

"Well thank you."

"Don't thank me," she looked up at me, confused. "Just take it for granted. You don't need to thank me."

She signed and leaned her head on my shoulder.

Was this is? Was this the moment that I was supposed to ask her?

I looked down at Wanda. Her eyes were open wide in amazement and she was eagerly drinking in the scene in front of us. It was pretty spectacular, I would have to admit. All those colors reflecting off of the rocks made it seem almost magical.

"How come there's a small river down in there?" she asked me.

"That's the Colorado River; and trust me, it's not that small."

"Really?"

"Really. It just looks small from up here because the space that it's in is very large. Do you know that there is a huge Dam in the Grand Canyon?"

She shook her head. "There is, it's called the Hoover Dam. It's one of the great wonders of the world. I think. If it isn't then it should be. It's certainly one of the greatest civil engineering wonders of the Earth."

"Why is it there?"

"To dam the water, create electricity, probably. That's what most dams do."

"I guess." She sighed. "I wish I could see that."

Her simple request tugged at my heart strings. I wished that I could simply take her there, but it was heavily guarded and wouldn't be easy to sneak into, no matter what.

"One day, my Wanda. I'll take you there one day, I promise."

"Okay."

I tried to dig up as much knowledge about the Grand Canyon as I could.

"Did you know that it was created over a six million year period of time, and that it was created by the Colorado River?" she shook her head. "It was created from the West and then the East before the two broke through the middle and completed it over six million years ago."

"What are you, an information booklet?" she giggled while speaking to me and I trapped her in a bear hug.

"No, I am not! I just remember a lot from school. I had to do a project on it in grade five."

"Sure you did, Ian."

"Are you calling me a liar?" I challenged her, pulling away to look in her eyes.

"So what if I am?" She said to me, eyes sparkling with amusement.

"I might just have to take this into my own hands is all."

With that, I held her tight to me, making sure that my arms were under her shoulders, effectively lifting her small body up of the ground. I then started to spin in a circle and kept going until she emitted a small scream.

"Ian!" she squealed, but I kept on twirling her around and around.

Finally, she trusted me not to fling her away or stumble over the edge, making us both fall to our death and she tilted her head back to the sky, letting her arms fly out to the side, closing her eyes. Out of nowhere, it began to lightly sprinkle rain on us and a huge grin lit up her face.

I slowly stopped and put her back down on the ground, but she still had her eyes closed and her face up at the sky.

"It feels so good to feel the rain."

I smiled down at her. No matter what I have figured out about Wanda, she goes and says or does something that completely catches me off guard. There is certainly never a dull moment with Wanda. I looked up and around, looking for the traitor cloud that was raining on our parade, but I couldn't find one.

"There's not a cloud in the sky, Wanda, I don't even know how it's raining right now," I said to her and her eyes finally opened.

"That's odd. You know what it is then?"

I shook my head and she smiled at me.

"It's God, he's making this a magical moment for us to share, something that we will remember for the rest of our lives. He wanted to make this special for us; just you and I."

A big, goofy grin came across my face before I leaned down and kissed Wanda. I had to, she was just so special to me and hearing those words come out of her mouth made me love her even more, if that was even possible.

"Ian," she groaned and I cracked an eye open to look over her shoulder.

"Turn around, Wanda," I spun her shoulders around and wrapped my arms around her shoulders so that we could watch the sunset together.

She sighed and I felt her small fingers curl around my arms in front of her as she leaned back into me. I braced myself for our combined weight, which wasn't much, but I still did it before resting my chin on the top of her head, bending down a little to reach it.

The last rays of the sun disappeared behind the rock, casting shadows through the canyon, giving it a mysterious and alluring air to it. The light rain continued, and in my mind, this was certainly a memory that I was not going to forget any time soon.

**??? POV**

I saw the two of them standing at the edge of the Canyon, his arms around her, and decided against running up and bombarding them. I would give the Soul and the human a few more days of solitude, but not too many more. I would strike at the perfect moment.

This planet belonged to the Souls, and she was my key to finding the rest of the rebel humans. With her help, I would bring down the resistance and this planet would finally live in peace.

**So there ya go; a bit of fluff, but a bit of plot development thrown in there at the end!  
I'm planning on picking it up from here a bit.**

**I'm glad that so many of you took the time to look at the pictures of the shoes and the dresses that I found and I'm also glad that you liked them!**

**Review! : )**


	13. Admissions

**A/N: Okay, so the update was delayed by a day, but I was busy with Christmas things yesterday, so it didn't get finished until now. Plus, it's waaaaay longer than it originally was supposed to be. And it took a bit of a different direction than I initially intended for it to go, but meh. *Shrugs shoulders***

**Oh, this chapter is rated M for the language used in it.**

**Thanks to shouvley, EagleGirl12, Kiara212, mcena99, EdwardAlways, hanaharoo, vampire's kisses 4 me, CullenNumber10, Vanessa-Wolfe303, TK-MR, Anaeli, xScribbles819, hearts-4-stars, twilightsparky101 and for your awesome reviews and for getting so into my story that it's awesome! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

The next few days were fairly uneventful and very much the same in nature. We'd move into a new town by dusk, grab a hotel room or two, sleep for the night then do a small raid for little odds and ends; mostly perishable items and clothes. By the end of the first week, it was evident that Mel was growing restless of being cooped up in the back of the van. Once we really started to collect things, Jared wouldn't let her sit in the front of the van, nor would he let her ride in the car, since he was the self-appointed driver of the van.

Sunny was actually going out with me a fair amount of the time. She seemed to be getting more independent without Kyle at her side, which I saw as a good thing, but Kyle was getting nervous about it. I was going to talk to him about it later.

Speaking of people and being nervous, Ian seemed to be on edge since we left the Grand Canyon. I kept asking him if he was okay, but he never really answered me. Half the time he would just shrug and give me a smile, while other times he would pull me into a hug.

I felt a hand clap down on my shoulder when I was just about to enter our hotel room for the night and I turned around.

"What is it?" I quickly asked, not really seeing who it was.

I heard a deep laugh. "Relax, Wanda, it's just me."

"Oh," I said, closing my eyes to get my heart rate back down to normal.

"What's going on here?" I heard Ian ask behind my closed eyes.

"Nothing's 'going on' Ian, chill. I just wanted to talk to Wanda for a second here, is that such a crime?"

I opened my eyes to look at them. Ian seemed to come out of nowhere and was standing between Jared and I. He still didn't have completely trust and faith in Jared after all, he was the one who okayed it for me to be removed from Melanie's body; but that was ages ago.

"Ian, it's fine, really," I said to him, placing a hand on his arm.

He let out a breath and then turned to me.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to," Ian told me.

"Ian," I half giggled. "It's fine. Nothing is going to happen, right Jared?"

"Right."

I still noticed that Ian glared over at Jared and I rolled my eyes. I loved how protective he was of me, but really, I could take care of myself.

"I suggest that we take this inside though," I said to them. "It's getting colder, and I don't want anyone to overhear our conversation, if you know what I mean."

Ian quickly wrapped his arm around my waist and steered me towards the door, opening it with the key card that he had in his hand. Once the green light flashed, he wrenched open the door and we stepped over the threshold, Jared following us.

Ian led us over to the small sitting area that had two couches and a love seat, and sat down on a couch opposite Kyle, pulling my hips back so I ended up sitting on top of him.

"Ian," I protested. "I don't want to hurt you."

I swear I heard him growl at that.

"Don't be silly, you never could." As if to prove his point, he gently pulled me back so that my back was resting against his solid chest and his arms hugged me tight to him.

"You were saying?" I said to Jared once he sat down on the love seat beside Mel.

"Right, well, I didn't want to talk about it with everyone here, but..." he trailed off and I looked at him, confused.

"You can't drop that and not continue," Mel said to him. "Now you've got to tell all of us."

"Well, you remember awhile back when I asked you Wanda to get... ahhm..." he looked away from us all and rubbed his left hand on the back of his neck.

"You remember back when I asked you to get those contraceptives for us?"

My eyes widened and an extremely deep blush covered my cheeks. I looked away and couldn't even look at anyone. He was right; this wasn't something that we should have talked about in front of everyone.

I nodded my head in response to his question.

"Well, we're in a big city and all, and why don't we start trying to get them now?" Jared's voice became steadily stronger as he kept speaking. "I mean, if it doesn't work here, there is still a handful of places left until we get back to the caves, so we have more time."

I didn't answer right away and could feel the stares of everyone on me. Ian leaned in close so that his nose was resting on the back of my neck.

"Remember Wanda, you don't have to go through with this you always have a choice."

"I know," I whispered back.

"Jared!" Sunny actually spoke up to him.

"What?"

"How can you just ask her to do something like that? It's not nearly as easy as it seems."

Everyone turned to her in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Mel asked.

Sunny sighed and swallowed hard before speaking.

"Well, since the Souls took over, you know that it has gotten harder to get them?"

Jared nodded immediately and Mel rolled her eyes at him.

"What? I tried to get them before, but couldn't," Jared said defensively and I couldn't help but to smile.

"So now you've got to subject yourself to a series of tests and questions and it's a hard task; not as simple as it was before."

Jared sat still and seemed to be pondering the situation while Mel was talking to him quietly and Kyle just looked at Sunny.

"I can't believe we're having this conversation," I mumbled and Ian kissed the back of my neck.

"How do you know so much about it?" Kyle asked and the room fell silent.

"I....welll....I," she stuttered and then stopped, seeming to be at a loss for words. Sunny closed her eyes before turning to face Kyle directly and biting her lip. "I had to get them," she whispered almost inaudibly.

You could have heard an ant sneeze in the silence that followed her admission.

"What?" Kyle asked harshly and glared at her.

Sunny promptly burst into tears and I struggled to get out of Ian's grip to go over and comfort her, but he wasn't letting me.

"Ian!"

"Wanda, let them work this out. We'll intervene if he gets totally out of hand, trust me."

I sighed and relaxed a bit in his arms, but not too much.

"Well when you were away and we hadn't found you as a Soul yet, my Mom and Dad thought that it was time that I started to settle down and start to have a family of my own; to start to forget about you."

I saw Kyle tense up out of the corner of my eye and Sunny placed a hand on his arm, but he shrugged it off.

"You see, no one thought that you were coming back; I mean, it took so long for you to find me again, but anyways,"

Sunny tried to look straight at Kyle, but I could practically feel the anger emanating off of him, even though she hadn't said much, that it wasn't shocking when she looked away from him with tears in her eyes.

"My mother took it upon herself to find me a suitable man to date and eventually marry. So one day, she came home with Blades of Terror, or Blade as he liked to be called," her voice was becoming thick with tears and I yearned to comfort her.

"Are you sure that we should be here and listening? I feel like we're intruding on their moment," I whispered to Ian and could feel him shaking his head.

"We need to know what happened to Sunny too. We deserve to know just as much as Kyle does," he said back to me and we quieted down as she continued.

"And let me guess, you fell in love with him, didn't you?" Kyle asked, his voice very cool.

She shook her head vehemently before justifying her response.

"Well, a part of me was, somewhere in my body, but I couldn't love him to the capacity that he deserved to be loved; I couldn't bring myself to do it." Thick tears were now rolling down her cheeks.

"Why?"

"Because of Jodi!" she said, exasperated before holding her head in her hands and full out sobbing.

I struggled against Ian with more force, but he had an iron grip on me, so all we ended up doing was shaking the couch cushion we were sitting on.

"What do you mean 'because of Jodi?!'" Kyle practically exploded while Sunny continued to cry and I still struggled against Ian. "Is she still in there? Are you hiding her from me?!"

"No," Sunny said, pitifully and Kyle swore very loudly.

"They you'd better explain what you meant by that."

Sunny managed to compose herself enough to speak, which I was amazed at.

"I loved Blade, I know that, but I couldn't allow myself to admit it, or anyone to know that or suspect it. And that is because of Jodi. She might not be with me right now, but in the beginning, I felt her pain, Kyle. I felt the pain that she felt at losing you; you were her one and only love. In turn, I fell in love with you too."

Kyle looked away, disgusted and somehow she dug up the courage to continue.

"Wanda, when you were in Melanie's body, did you not feel like you were in love with Jared?" she asked me directly and I froze.

"I... ah, yes?" I answered pretty feebly and blushed, unable to look either Mel or Jared in the eyes.

"But you were still able to fall in love with Ian all the same, no? You were able to have your own emotions and your own feelings for someone that were not linked to that of your body's."

I nodded and Sunny bit her lip again.

"You see? Jodi loved you, Kyle, and because in the beginning those emotions are so strong and new, I was in love with you without ever having met you before. But then I met Blade, and I figured that I might as well take a chance with my life; it didn't seem like you would ever make an appearance again,"

"So I allowed myself to fall in love with Blade. Me, Sunlight Passing Through The Ice, not Jodi, me. And I was in absolute bliss, though deep down, there were still feelings for you, and I felt guilty as hell. Just before you showed up, Blaze and I decided to take our relationship to... the next level, so to speak and..."

Kyle lost it then.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?! YOU'D BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS!"

He jumped up and started pacing around the room while Sunny dissolved into tears again.

"Kyle, I'm sure you know what that means, you're not stupid or too young to know what they did," Melanie said, standing up for Sunny.

"I want to hear it from her!" he yelled.

"We did that!" Sunny half-yelled back, not finding it in herself to fully yell at Kyle. "We did, and I'm sorry! I'm sorry for the pain it's causing you, but is it so wrong to have some happiness for myself?"

"YES!" Kyle screamed, his face quickly turning red. "Yes it IS so wrong when you're using MY Jodi's body like it's nothing!"

"Kyle, it's not like that," she pleaded. "As much as I loved Blaze, I couldn't see myself ever having a family with him. Sure, I might be able to marry him, but I couldn't do that with him, even if the fate of this planet depended on it. That's why I got an abortion."

She said the last part so quietly that I wasn't sure that I heard her right, but by the way that Mel had gasped and both her and Jared wore expressions of shock, I knew that I hadn't been hearing things. I clapped my hands over my mouth and could feel Ian's arms fall away from me. I took that opportunity to jump up and run over to Sunny, holding her in my arms.

"Oh Wanda!" she cried into my shoulder and I tightened my grip on her.

I couldn't believe it. Of all the things to admit to us, I never, ever would have guessed that Sunny would admit to this. I always thought that she was so fragile and innocent; I never suspected a past like this from her. Evidently neither did Kyle.

"What. The. Hell."

"I'm sorry Kyle, I'm so sorry." She lifted her head up to look at him. "It killed me to do it, you know it would have, I hate violence so much, but I went and did it. I killed an extension of me. Blade never knew, I didn't tell anyone. It would have killed him just as it did to me to know that I had snuffed out an innocent life as if it were a candle light. But do you know why I did it?"

I saw Kyle's jaw tighten as he finally looked at her and shook his head.

"I did it for you. I did it for Jodi."

"Why, Sunny? You could have led a happy life with Blade and a baby, why would you do it for Kyle and Jodi?" I asked her gently, rubbing circles into her back.

"Why? Because as much as I would have liked to have a child, it wouldn't be right, I knew there was a chance that you were still out there, Kyle, and I figured that if you had found me pregnant, you wouldn't have taken us back, you wouldn't have tried to get Jodi back."

"What did it matter if I ever got Jodi back?" Kyle asked through clenched teeth.

"I saw how happy she was with you; I wanted to give her that life back. In the beginning, when her memories were still very fresh, I knew that she would only truly be happy with you, and I wasn't going to strip whatever chance she had at that away from either of you."

"So then why did you put up a fight when we took you out and were going to send you to another world?" Ian asked quietly.

"Because I wanted to stay, if I couldn't stay with all of you, then I would have gone back out and found Blade. Then we could have had the life like Jodi's mother wanted. I wouldn't have said anything about what had happened, but I would have allowed myself the happiness that I wanted to have with him."

Sunny broke down then and all I could do was hold her. I didn't know how to react to this kind of news. I understood her logic behind it, I had been in sort of the same situation as her, only Melanie had fought back and not disappeared like Jodi had.

"How can you all believe such LIES!" Kyle kicked something aside before going ripping the front door open and slamming it shut behind him.

A few seconds later, the sound of the door from the room next to us where he and Sunny were going to stay that night was heard hitting the wall as he flung it open too before he started smashing things around in there and yelling.

I looked around and locked eyes with Ian, giving him a pleading look.

"Ian, please, go talk to him and calm him down or something."

He snorted and shook his head.

"Do you think that he'll listen to me? He's just got to deal with all this information that he's just been given before he can do anything."

Another loud bang was heard through the wall and I jumped.

"Ian, if you don't go in there and at least talk to him, the Souls down at the front desk are going to come up and investigate, and how well do you think that will go over?"

Ian sighed, closing his eyes before getting up off the couch. He crossed the room to kiss me on the forehead before turning to Sunny. He looked at her sadly and went to put a hand on her shoulder, but she shied away into me. I couldn't really blame her; after all, Kyle had just exploded at her and all.

"I know why you did it Sunny, and it's okay. We're all here for you. It must have been the hardest choice of your life to make, and even though my brother can't exactly come to terms with it, well..." he ran a hand through his hair. "He will."

Ian left the room and knocking was heard on the door next to ours.

"Well," Jared said, breaking the silence. "That was certainly..."

"Epic?" Mel supplied for him and he nodded.

Sunny continued to cry into my shoulder and I was patient with her. This was difficult, and I could appreciate that.

"She could help us," Mel said quietly.

"What?" Jared asked her, though we all knew that he heard.

"Well, if she's been to get that done, then she would know how to get them for us. We wouldn't have to blindly search around for them and possible make a huge mistake."

You could practically see the possibilities running through Jared's head like clockwork.

"Jared," I warned, but Sunny interrupted.

"I do know where it is and how to about getting it, but I am _not_ going in there again."

Jared's face fell, but I thought about it for about half a second.

"I'll do it."

My words resounded through the air and seemed to echo off the walls. Loud voices could be heard through the walls before anyone spoke again.

"Are you sure?" Mel asked me, eyeing me and I nodded.

"Just as long as Sunny tells me what to do and where to go, I'll be alright."

"Where do you go then?" Jared asked and Sunny sniffled.

"Jared you insensitive wart! She doesn't have to tell us right this very second," Melanie scolded.

"No, no, it's alright," Sunny tried to reassure him. "It's in a separate medical building; not a hospital or anything like that. They're specifically for that kind of thing, everything to do with reproduction."

"Weird," Jared mused while Mel looked directly into my eyes again.

"Will Ian be alright with this? It's not in a place that we're ever thought about going before."

"He'll... probably freak out, in all honesty, but I'm not backing out," I admitted.

"Are you sure?" she asked me and I nodded again.

"Let's not talk about this right now; we can do it in the morning or something. Come on, Sunny," I said to her, standing up and taking her hand. "Let's get to bed."

"Bu...but... Kyle. And the other room..."

"Don't worry about him," I reassured her. "Ian's got it all under control. You and I can sleep together in here." I opened up the room that was supposed to be mine and Ian's and gently pushed her inside.

"Oh no, I can't kick Ian out of your room, that's not right."

"Sunny, don't worry about it."

I closed the door and started searching through my suitcase and located pyjamas for both Sunny and I. I threw them at her and she reluctantly went into the bathroom to change. I heard a soft knock on the door and opened it gently to find Ian on the other side, smiling weakly at me.

"Can I just get my stuff?" he whispered, coming in anyways. "I'm going to stay with Kyle and make sure that he doesn't do anything rash."

I nodded. "Sunny's going to sleep with me. She's pretty distraught," I whispered back as he took his bag in his hand.

"I know, he's an idiot. Hopefully this will all blow over relatively soon though."

"Yeah."

"Please, please be safe Wanda," Ian stepped closer and wrapped his right hand around my neck. "If anything happens to you in here when I'm not with you, I'll never forgive myself."

"I could say the same thing about you staying in a room without either Sunny or I in it, you know." I looked up at Ian, my face full of concern, but he just gave me one of his smiles that never fails to melt my heart.

"Don't worry about me."

Ian closed the gap between our faces and kissed me once, twice, three times before pulling away. I don't know what made me do it, but I placed both hands on the side of his head and brought his lips back down to mine. We kissed for a half a minute before he broke away.

"I hate to leave you, but I can't leave Kyle any longer, and if Sunny sees me in here...."

"I know; go," I gently pushed him towards the door and he closed it gently behind him.

I sighed and changed into my pyjamas, hopping into the bed to wait for Sunny. She opened the door soon after and emerged from the bathroom.

"You okay?" I asked her and she nodded weakly.

I patted the bed beside me and she gently sat down.

"Look, I'm sorry for kicking out Ian..." she started to apologize.

"Sunny, it's really fine. I want to be here to comfort you, first and foremost. I know that this is rough on you."

She nodded and reluctantly pulled back the covers to get in the bed and I followed suit. Once we were tucked in and I had turned off the light, she began to speak.

"Wanda?"

"Mmmn?"

"I'm sorry that you guys had to hear it like that, I never meant to tell you in such a way. You all deserved to know, and I feel bad for keeping it from you all for such a long time."

"Sunny, don't feel bad."

"But Kyle..."

"Kyle will get over it; he just needs to let it sink in a bit. He'll be fine. Now you should get some sleep," I told her.

"You're right."

I felt her roll over onto her back and I closed my eyes.

"Night Wanda. And thank you."

"Good night Sunny; you're very welcome."

I stayed awake with my eyes closed until I was sure that Sunny was sleeping. I heard her breathing even out and then she began to move closer to me until she was curled up right beside me. I smiled weakly and wrapped an arm around her head, resting my cheek on her forehead. Together, we both fell into a restless sleep.

**Ian POV**

I knocked on the door three times before it swung open.

"Oh, it's just you," Kyle grunted and turned his back to go back inside.

"Who were you expecting, the tooth fairy?" I said, closing the door.

"Not funny."

I shrugged. "It's your opinion."

I crossed the room and flopped down on a couch, resting my hands behind my head.

"Care to tell me why the hell you flipped out like that?"

"Because that was a load of shit," he replied and I snorted.

"Right, sure it was," I replied sarcastically.

"You actually believe that?"

I shrugged. "Why not? It sounds pretty legit to me."

"You're just like them, you know?"

"You know what?" I said, sitting up to look at Kyle pacing the floor. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Damn it Ian! What the hell has gotten into you? You're so quick to stand up for it, but do you realize what it's done?! My Jodi has been corrupted because of _her_!" Kyle punched the wall between our rooms and I rolled my eyes.

"Stop taking it out on the furniture," I said to him, looking at the over turned love seat and the end table that had been knocked aside. "Look at it this way, Kyle; would you have wanted to find Jodi's body only to find out that there was a child inside?"

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER!" he yelled at me, his face turning a brilliant shade of red.

"Then what is the point? What does matter?"

"What matters, Ian, is that she took advantage of Jodi! It locked her away so that she can never come back, and took over! This is insane! This kind of shit doesn't happen!" Kyle then kicked the kitchen counter that was sticking out.

"Kyle, stop it."

"NO! HOW THE HELL CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS? A FUCKING SOUL IS _NOT_ ABLE TO BE IN LOVE WITH TWO PEOPLE AT ONCE, I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS!"

"Then how do you explain Wanda and I? How? Because she was so much in love with Jared when I got to her, you know. I knew that going in to it. I didn't expect to fall in love with her, but I did. And you know what? Even though Wanderer was able to love me, Melanie's body wasn't. Melanie couldn't let her do that to her body."

"It seems to be quite similar to Sunny's case; Jodi, underneath it all still loves you, and Sunny knew that, but she was still able to find love for Blade. But because she loves you, and she loves Jodi, though she's never met her, she still saved Jodi's body for you."

"NO SHE DIDN'T! SHE WENT AND... FUCKED THAT SOUL!! JODI'S BODY IS RUINED! _I_ WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONLY ONE TO BE ABLE TO TOUCH HER! JODI AND HET BODY BELONG TO ME! NOT TO THIS STUPID 'BLADE' CREATURE! SUNNY SCREWED UP, BIG TIME!"

"She did not screw up, Kyle. Is it so wrong that Sunny is happy? She didn't expect to come here and be thrown into a situation like this. Sure, they are briefed that they will experience some human memories, but they are rarely subjected to this. I'm pretty sure that Jodi didn't fade as easily as you think. Jodi was a fighter you know that; she was like you. She was probably there for the first few years..."

"But then what? She gave up. SHE GAVE UP, IAN! SHE LOST FAITH IN ME! SHE DIDN'T THINK I WOULD COME BACK! SHE... she thought that I didn't love her."

Kyle leaned against the wall before sliding down it to sit on the floor, his elbows resting on his knees. Then he did something that I actually never, ever thought that Kyle would do; he started to cry. Kyle put his head down and rested it on his arms before succumbing to tears.

I didn't know what to do; I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to do; I could either keep on defending Sunny and make him mad at me, or I could go and comfort him. I shuddered at the thought, but then again, he was my brother, and he had helped me through my fair share of hard times, as difficult as that is to imagine.

I got up and walked over to Kyle, sitting down beside him.

"She's really gone, isn't she?" he asked me, and I honestly didn't know what to say.

"I... I don't think so."

"Bull shit."

I smirked; there was the old Kyle.

"I'm not kidding. The Jodi that we know and love is in there somewhere; I think that she just wants you to accept Sunny and see how you treat her before she makes an appearance."

He ran a hand through his hair. "But I've been nothing but nice to Sunny since she came here, and Jodi hasn't shown up yet."

"I know. I don't think she's ready. You've got to give her time."

He sighed. "I fucked up, didn't I?"

I couldn't help but nod. "Yes, yes you did."

He groaned and then started to stand up.

"Maybe this will all blow over by the morning?"

"Doubt it."

"Thanks, asshole, for being so optimistic."

I just shook my head before getting up and standing beside him.

"Well, I doubt that you're going to sleep with Sunny tonight; if I were her, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you right now."

"Hell, _I _don't want to be anywhere near me right now," he said.

"Are you feeling guilty?" I asked him.

"Hell no."

"Damn. I thought that you might be seeing a little light to this situation."

"Good one. Get your shit and come back here, I guess," he said, turning to the bedroom, shaking his head.

I exited the room and went back into the one next to us. Very gently, I knocked on the door that was supposed to be mine and Wanda's room and she opened it softly. I gave her a soft smile before speaking.

"Can I just get my stuff?" I whispered, coming into the room as I said it, she was going to let me in anyhow. "I'm going to stay with Kyle and make sure that he doesn't do anything rash."

Wanda nodded, closing the door gently. "Sunny's going to sleep with me. She's pretty distraught," she whispered back to me as I grabbed my bag.

"I know, he's an idiot. Hopefully this will all blow over relatively soon though."

"Yeah."

"Please, please be safe Wanda," I took a step closer to her and wrapped my hand around her neck. I loved the soft feeling of her skin that I just had to touch it. "If anything happens to you in here when I'm not with you, I'll never forgive myself."

"I could say the same thing about you staying in a room without either Sunny or I in it, you know." Wanda looked up at me with her face full of concern, and I couldn't help but smile at her; she worried too much.

"Don't worry about me."

Slowly, I leaned closer to her and kissed her lightly three times before reluctantly pulling away. To my shock and delight, Wanda very boldly grabbed a hold of my head and brought my face back down to hers. I couldn't help but kiss her back, but not for too long. Again, I willed myself to pull away from her before I got carried away.

"I hate to leave you, but I can't leave Kyle any longer, and if Sunny sees me in here...." I tried to tell her, but she interrupted.

"I know; go."

Wanda placed a small hand on my back and gently guided me out of the room and closed it. I turned and saw Jared standing in the small kitchen area with a glass of water.

"How is he?"

I shrugged. "He's an idiot."

Jared almost choked on his water. "Well, I knew that."

I shrugged again and headed to the door, saluting before it closed again and letting myself back into the other room.

"I've got my stuff," I announced once I returned.

"Fabulous. You're still not sleeping with me," Kyle said.

"Awe, come on, brotherly love and all."

"Shut up."

He closed the door to his room and I sighed before getting changed and lying down on the couch. Unfortunately, this room only had one bedroom; therefore I was left to sleep on the couch. I knew that I would be sore come the next morning, but the alternative was sleeping with Kyle.

I shook my head and rolled over, closing my eyes. All I could think about was Wanda. I hoped that she would be safe in that room. I knew that Kyle and I could handle ourselves; but I worried for the girls. I would never live it down if anything happened to Wanda. I looked on the coffee table, where I had set the ring box down for the night so it was in my line of vision and smiled. Shortly after that, I fell into a fitful sleep.

**Mel POV**

Once I had gone into our bedroom, I quickly changed and got into bed. This wasn't exactly the best evening for Sunny, I knew, but it was still good to know that she knew where to get that stuff. I was certainly looking forward to when we could get our hands on some. I felt bad that Wanda was in there alone comforting Sunny, but she probably didn't want to be around humans at the moment, so it was best to leave her there. She was in good hands with Wanda.

Jared opened the door then and dove face first into the bed beside me, effectively launching me up into the air.

"You maggot," I scolded him, but smiled when I saw the sleepy face that he had on. I couldn't help but reach over and brush the hair out of his face; that simple act of touching him made my heart swell.

"That feels good," he moaned into his pillow and my smile widened.

"Simple things, love."

"You know what's awesome?"

"No," I kept playing with his hair.

"You'd better not be braiding it or anything," he warned and I giggled.

"Nope, nothing of the sort, I promise."

He cracked an eye open.

"Relax," I told him. "What were you going to say?"

"It's awesome that Sunny can tell us exactly how to get that for us; even if she's not going in, at least Wanda will know exactly what to do."

"Jared, we can't go pestering Sunny right this moment," I told him, though I was guilty of thinking about it before he came into the room. "I also dunno how I feel about using Wanda like this. Ian's going to be pissed when he finds out it's not in like a hospital or anything."

"Ian will get over it."

I bit my lip; I wasn't so sure about that. He was very protective of her on any given day, but now that he had a ring burning a hole in his pocket, they were inseparable.

"How's Kyle?" I asked.

"Ian says that he's just being an idiot."

"So same old?"

He chuckled. "Yep, same old."

I smiled and rested my head back against the head board. Jared rolled onto his side to look up at me.

"What?" I asked, looking down.

"You know what will be a plus to finally getting our hands on some of these contraceptives?"

I giggled, but played along. "No, why don't you tell me?"

Jared smiled rather large.

"I've got a better plan; why don't I show you."

"Jared!" I laughed as he pulled me down and swiftly rolled on top of me.

"Something the matter?" he asked from on top of me, his hot breath on my cheek.

"Nope," I replied. "Nothing wrong with this at all."

"Good," he replied.

Jared seemed quite content to lay there and gaze at me, so I took matters into my own hands, literally. I reached up and brought Jared's face down to mine, crushing our lips together. We broke apart to breathe, and Jared smiled at me.

"Eager, are we?"

"Shut up," I told him and kissed him again.

**Well, there's your update for now! I'll be working on something for later in the week, after the Christmas madness has finished. Hope you enjoyed reading it! : )**

**Merry Christmas!  
Buon Natale!  
Feliz Navidad!  
Joyeux Noel!  
Happy Hanukkah!**

**And Merry/Happy any other holiday that you might celebrate at this time of year! **

**Review! : )  
**


	14. New Places

**A/N: HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! :) : ) : )**

**Yeah, not much to say, except that the plot twists! **

**Thanks to TwiHard09, WhiteCamellia, xScribbles819, EagleGirl12, mcena99, 23, twilightsparky101, hanaharoo, TopKat90, EdwardAlways, mlindsey7 and Anaeli for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

Sunny had taken to riding with Ian and I in the car while Kyle, Jared and Mel continued to drive the van behind us. I was a little nervous about them being without one of either Sunny or I in there, but they assured me that they would be fine. I still wasn't entirely convinced though.

Today was the day though; Sunny had told me all about this building and how to go about doing everything needed. I was nervous. This wasn't like your typical 'fool the Healer and take some supplies, stashing them in your bag while pretending to be hurt' kind of thing. No, I actually had to book an appointment and do a pre-questionnaire and everything.

Ian was very reluctant to let me go in there. I think that part of him was convinced that they would somehow figure me out for what I really was and they would bust us all. I didn't think that would happen, but his imagination was running ramped, and there was no breaking through to him.

I was sitting in the passenger seat while he was driving and Sunny was sleeping sprawled out over the back seat. We were following Jared and the van through the streets of Seattle to find this place.

"Wanda?" Ian asked softly, so as to not wake Sunny.

"Yeah?" I turned my head to look at him, giving him a weak smile.

"Are you okay? Are you sure that you can do this?"

"Of course I can," I replied, trying to mask my nervousness with confidence.

Evidently he wasn't buying it.

"Just promise me that if anything starts to go amiss that you'll get out of there and we'll move on. This isn't exactly something that we need for basic survival, we can go without it."

"I know, but I'll be fine."

"Promise?"

I gave him a more genuine smile. "Promise."

Ian took my hand in his and brought it up to his lips, giving it a kiss before holding it between us comfortably. I took to looking out the window at the city around us.

For the most part it was just buildings and Souls going about their daily business and I began to wonder what life would be like if I had gotten another host body that wasn't Mel's. What would I be doing? Would I still be teaching? I didn't know. I could have been placed anywhere on this planet. I could be over in Asia, speaking a totally different language. I could be a pilot, or a tour guide, or a musician; anything in the world, according to my hosts' past life.

I could have been a wife and a mother, I realized. I could have fulfilled my calling and settled down with another Soul to have a family of my own.

It really was a waste though, these Souls having children. Once they got to a certain age, they just had Souls inserted into them anyways, only to be discarded at will. A Soul could move on at any time; just skip out on a term. Then what? If they didn't find another Soul fast enough, the host would have to be disposed of.

I shuddered at the thought and Ian must have noticed.

"What are you thinking of?" he asked me.

"Just... some stuff," I said, shaking my head.

"What kind of stuff, Wanda, you can tell me. Is it about this task, because I know that you've prepared yourself and everything, but..."

"No, it's not about this," I finally looked at him and took a breath. "It's just.... I was thinking about how my life would be different if I wasn't placed in Mel's body."

I saw him pale as I was telling him what it was.

"Don't worry about it," I mumbled.

"No no no, it's okay Wanda, I just wasn't expecting that to be what it was, that's all."

"I know. Sorry."

"Don't be. Sometimes I wonder too."

We fell into a comfortable silence after that and I just looked at the back of Jared's van until it pulled into a parking lot. I closed my eyes as we stopped.

"Are you sure about this?" I heard Ian asked and I was nodding before he even finished. "You don't look so good, Wanda."

"It's part of the act," I told him. "I've got to look scared about this."

"I don't think you're acting," he whispered and I opened my eyes, biting my lip. He was right.

"It's fine, don't worry about me. I'll be out before you know it," I reassured both him and myself at the same time.

I opened the door and made to get out, but Ian placed a hand on my arm and stopped me. I turned to look at him and he put a hand on the back of my neck and pulled me in for a quick kiss.

"Please be safe," he whispered to me before kissing my forehead. "Don't forget this either."

Ian reached back through the seats and handed me the knapsack that I was supposed to take with me.

"Oh, right," I said, taking it from him and he chuckled. "Thanks."

This time when I stepped out of the car, I stood up straight and slung the bag over my left shoulder, looking up at the building that I was supposed to enter. I gave Ian a smile before closing the door and starting to walk up to the front doors.

They opened automatically and I scanned the board for the name of the Healer that I was supposed to see. I found her name and the suite number, took a big breath and headed towards the elevators.

**Ian POV**

I hated this. I hated that Wanda had to go in there alone. I hated that for whatever reason they had yanked these products from the store shelves so that you had to make appointments to get them. I mean, really, you would think that they would be widely available so that little kids weren't running around left, right and center. I would never understand the way that these Souls thought things through.

By the time we had pulled into the parking lot, I was a basket of nerves. I did not want her to do this, at all. I wished more than anything that I could go in there with her. I looked over at her and she was looking very worried.

"Are you sure about this?" I couldn't help but to ask her, and being Wanda, she was nodding before I had even finished my question. I sighed. "You don't look so good, Wanda."

"It's part of the act," she said quickly, but I didn't believe her. "I've got to look scared about this."

"I don't think you're acting," I whispered and noticed that she was biting her lip; that usually meant that I was right.

"It's fine, don't worry about me. I'll be out before you know it."

I knew that she was trying to reassure me, but it wasn't working to be honest. It seemed as though she was trying to convince herself at the same time, and I closed my eyes.

Wanda grabbed the door handle to open it and step out, but I couldn't let her go just yet. I had to do something first. I wrapped my hand around her arm to stop her and it worked, as she turned around to look at me; blue eyes meeting silver. Before I could stop myself, or really think properly for that matter, I drew her close to me and kissed her. In my mind I had wanted it to be long and drawn out so that she would consider not going, but it ended up being short and quick.

"Please be safe," I said to her, our faces mere inches apart before kissing her forehead. "Don't forget this either."

I had noticed that the first time she went to get out of the car, she was about to go without her knapsack, which would practically render this expedition useless. I reached back and pulled it between us, trying not to hit Sunny before handing it to her.

"Oh, right," she said, very quietly and very adorably and I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. "Thanks."

I nodded, but I don't think that she saw me as she got out of the car this time with her bag. I was very reluctant to let her go; a large part wanted to take her hand, yank her back into the car and drive away, but I knew that wouldn't go over well with anyone on this raid, really. So instead, I had to let her go. She gave me one of her cute small smiles, but I couldn't find it in me to smile back.

When she closed the door, I leaned back in my seat, throwing my head back. Blowing out a breath of air, I repositioned all the mirrors so that I could watch her walking towards the front doors. She seemed to hesitate before they opened automatically and then she stepped through them, out of my line of sight.

I closed my eyes, internally counting down the minutes until she would be back and safe in the car.

"Did she go?" Sunny asked groggily from the back seat.

"Yeah."

"Oh. I wanted to speak to her before she left," she said, sitting up and yawning.

"Well, we didn't want to wake you and we didn't know if and when you were going to wake up," I told her honestly.

"Oh."

Sunny then began to look out the window and we drifted into silence. I looked over to Jared in the van sitting beside us and he began smiling like a fool and gave me the thumbs up sign. I just shook my head and looked away again. I jumped really high when the passenger door opened and closed again and looked over to see Mel sitting in Wanda's spot.

I just looked away again, wishing that I could be in that building with Wanda, helping her in some way.

"Stop moping," Mel said to me and I shook my head. "Wanda's a big girl, she can handle a little mission like this, trust me."

"But still..." I trailed off, looking up at the sky out my window.

"Sunny, how are you doing?" Melanie then asked, turning around to look at her.

"I'm okay."

"No you're not; there is no way that you can be after the way that Kyle blew up at you the other day."

"I'm just trying not to think about it," Sunny replied in a small voice. "I'm hoping that it will just go away."

"It won't," I spoke up, regretfully. Now I was going to be dragged head on into this girly conversation.

I could feel both of their eyes on me, so I turned to look at them.

"It won't," I repeated, shrugging.

"He's right, you're going to have to talk to Kyle at some time," Melanie backed me up and Sunny began shaking her head immediately.

"We all know that Kyle's an ass," she flinched at my word choice, but I continued. "But he will get over it. I bet you that he's forgotten half of it by now."

"What, did you get him drunk?" Mel muttered under her breath at me and I ignored her.

"He said some awful things though," Sunny said.

"That's what he does," I shrugged. "I should know.

"What he means is that Kyle will blow things way out of proportion at first, but once he thinks about it for a few hours, or days, he'll regret it and everything will be back to normal."

"I don't know about that..." Sunny said very sceptically. "He seemed awfully mad at me, and I don't think that something like this will just blow over with him."

"Well, I'll admit that it wasn't exactly something that we were prepared for; none of us really saw that coming," Mel admitted.

"I know, and that wasn't the way that I wanted to tell any of you, but it just sort of... happened. I'm sorry Mel, and to you too, Ian."

"Don't apologize, Sunny," I said to her. "None of this was your fault."

I resumed looking in the mirrors at the door in case Wanda was to come out early.

"Sure it was," she continued. "It was my fault that I was with Blade in the first place. If my parents, or Jodi's parents, knew what was going on, they would have flipped out, that's for sure."

"It was nothing to be ashamed of, Sunny..." Mel started to say, but Sunny cut her off.

"Yes it was, that's not how Soul's work anymore, they don't just throw away their love like that." She sighed. "I feel horrible."

"Don't," I said, opening the door. "I'm going to go sit in the van for a little bit," I told them and then got out.

I chanced a glance at the building before walking around the back end of the car and flinging open the passenger door of the van.

"Move it," I said to Kyle, but he just looked at me.

"No."

"I don't think that you're in any position to talk right now after what you said about Sunny, now move it."

He sighed, but undid the seatbelt and climbed through to the back.

"Happy?"

"Not really," I said, closing the door and leaning back on the seat again.

"Nervous?" Jared asked me and I nodded. "Don't be; Wanda will do absolutely fine."

"I'll believe it when she's out of there and in my arms," I said and he chuckled. "Laugh all you want, but you know that you would be sweating buckets were it Melanie in there instead of Wanda."

"But it's not."

I shook my head; he wasn't getting it.

"You just worry too much Ian," Kyle said and I turned around to look at him.

"I wouldn't be talking right now if I were you," I said in a low and threatening voice. "You destroyed Sunny the other day and now she's scared of you. Is that something to be proud of? At least I'm worried about her and not reaming her out about something."

"Wow Ian, that was low, even for you," he said back.

"No, I don't believe that it was. It was called the truth. I just came from that car," I nodded towards it with my chin. "They were talking about that and Sunny feels horrible. She also thinks that if she ignores it then you at least will forget about it and not be mad at her."

"I'm not mad at her," he mumbled.

"Oh really? Because it sure doesn't seem that way."

"Well that's the way it is," he said, creeping up on me so that he was right in my face.

Jared stuck his arm out between us and pushed Kyle backwards so he was sitting on his heels away from my face.

"What is with you two?" he grumbled. "Kyle, you screwed up, admit it. If I was Sunny right now, I wouldn't come near you with a thirty nine and a half foot pole."

I snorted and buried my face in my hands.

"Huh, yeah? Good one, right?" Jared asked me.

"I don't get it," Kyle said and I laughed out.

"It's The Grinch, dumbass," I said to him.

"Oh."

I sighed. "How long has it been?" I asked Jared.

"Twenty minutes."

"That's all?!"

"Yep."

I groaned. "Why does it seem that time is going backwards?"

"It's not. But you could sleep while you're waiting," Jared suggested.

"Good one," I replied sarcastically.

"Yeah?"

"No." There was no way that I could sleep while I was so high-strung.

"Suit yourself; I'm going to go to sleep. Need my energy for tonight's activities, if you know what I mean."

I closed my eyes. "I did not need to hear that."

Jared chuckled with his eyes closed. "Mel and I are getting our own room tonight."

"Figured that," Kyle muttered. "What are the rest of us going to do? It's not like I can sleep in the same room as Sunny the way that she's acting."

"You got yourself into this Kyle, you can surely get yourself out of this," Jared said before falling asleep.

"But seriously, I'm not sleeping with you again," he whined.

"As much as I love sleeping in the same hotel room as you, I'd like to be with Wanda too."

"You're sick."

"And you're an asshole. I am not either. I just miss her; I miss holding her and right now that's all I'd like to do."

A few minutes of silence followed my little admission.

"You're whipped," Kyle said to me, ruffling my hair.

"Leave me alone!"

He just chuckled, but thankfully sat back.

"Jared's right you know; you've got to get yourself out of this one. None of us can do this for you."

"I know."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I have a plan."

"Tell me the plan; knowing you it'll dig you a deeper grave if it's stupid enough."

I could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

"Fine."

Kyle spent the better part of the next twenty minutes or so telling me the finer points of the plan that he had in mind and I had to admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been. Some of his plans have been downright catastrophes in the past.

"So what do you think?" he asked me as Jared snorted, waking himself up.

"Classy," I said to him before turning to Kyle. "It wasn't that bad," I admitted. "I thought that it might have been a lot worse though."

"You just underestimate me is all," he said sort of proudly.

"No, I just think that you're an idiot is all."

"That makes no sense though!" he practically cried out, but I just smiled.

"No one said that it had to make sense, did it?"

"But..."

"Shut up you two," Jared interrupted, starting the van; the engine roaring to life.

"What? Where are we going?" I started looking all around for the source as to why we were leaving early.

"Wanda's back," Jared replied and I looked around for her, spotting her opening the passenger door of the car while Mel moved awkwardly on the inside to the driver's seat.

I made to get out of the van, but Jared stopped me.

"It will be just another hour or so until we're at the hotel; you can wait," he told me, putting it into reverse.

I looked at Wanda again and she just smiled at us. Jared tentatively gave her another thumbs up, asking if she got the job done and Wanda beamed at us, giving two thumbs up back to us.

"Yeahoo!" Jared called out, backing out of the spot and putting it in drive.

"What are you so happy about?" Kyle grumbled as I looked in the side mirror at Mel pulling in behind us.

"I'm just excited about tonight!" Jared said in a sort of sing-song voice that I regretted ever hearing in my life. "It's going to be magical."

"Will you shut up?" I asked him. "I don't need an insight into your sexual relationship with Melanie, thank you very much."

He laughed out loud at that, turning out of the parking lot onto the main road.

"You sure?"

"Positive," I answered, now intently watching the car behind us, now counting down the minutes until we arrived at the hotel so I could hold Wanda tight.

**Wanda POV**

I took the elevator up to the fourth floor and located Healer Peace's office; number 413. Pausing outside the door, I took a deep breath before entering.

Inside, it was light and airy with the few generic pictures of flowers and boats and such along with the fake potted plants that hadn't been dusted in the last year; which was weird. Souls were usually impeccable cleaners. I suppose that didn't include plastic plants in waiting rooms. I slowly made my way up to the counter where the Soul behind the desk asked for my name.

"It... it's Crawls to the Sun," I stuttered and she smiled up at me encouragingly.

"Good. Here is the paperwork that we need you to fill out," she handed it to me on a clipboard along with a pen. Evidently they were still using the old human ways of documentation here. Maybe the new technology hadn't made its way to this small office yet.

I continued with my musings as I turned away from the counter to sit down and fill it out. She said something else to me, but I didn't catch it. I sat my bad down behind me and squished it a little. It didn't matter; there was only a few items of clothes to make it look bulky, so that when I left with it hopefully stuffed, it wouldn't look too suspicious.

I looked at the first question: _Name:____________

Well, that was easy enough; Earth Dancing Wind

I filled out the rest of the form relatively easy, filling in the fake addresses and postal codes that we had looked up in the phone book earlier that day. I came upon the last question and stopped: _Reason for visit._

What I felt like putting was "_Isn't it obvious,_" but I refrained from that. That could potentially get me into trouble. My face reddened as I wrote down the answer;

Wish to get intimate with boyfriend, but do not want children running around at this time.

"Done, dear?" The receptionist asked me and I jumped a tiny bit, nodding. I returned the paperwork and she smiled at me. "She'll call you back in a minute. Don't be so nervous! Healer Peace is the best at her line of work!"

I thanked her and sat down in the chair again, starting to sweat. What if I couldn't do this? What if they weren't in the place Sunny said they were? A thousand 'what if's' ran through my head, and it didn't even register when someone called my name. I didn't even notice until a pair of feet appeared in my line of vision on the floor.

Looking up, I saw a pretty woman, who had dark, almost black hair that was curling and starting to go gray in pieces. She had a beautiful face, and smiled at me once our eyes met; silver on silver.

"Earth Dancing Wind?" she asked in a voice that seemed to twinkle, and I nodded. "I'm Peaceful with Breeze, and I'll be your Healer for today. Are you ready?"

About seventy-five percent of me wanted to shake my head and run screaming from the building, but I bravely put on a smile and nodded, standing and taking a hold of my bag. If I didn't do this, it would be the biggest disappointment to everyone in the caves and I couldn't let them down.

"Wonderful," she said to me. "Follow me."

I followed her down the hall to the last room on the end. She smiled and waved me through while grabbing my chart from a passing nurse.

"Please, have a seat," she gestured towards the table that was on the other side of the room and I nodded, awkwardly removing my bag and sitting lightly.

"Don't be scared! I promise, nothing bad will happen here!" she tried to be reassuring, but I was beyond comfort by that point. All I wanted was this stuff so that I could get out of here and get to Ian.

"Now," she sat down on one of those stools. "What exactly are you looking for? Anything specific?"

I shook my head. "I'm not really sure; I'm new here and don't have much exposure to these materials." I tried to sound as convincing as possible, and she seemed to buy it.

"Not a problem!" she marked something down on my chart before looking up at me and smiling. I tried to smile back, but it seemed too forced to me.

"Now," just come along with me and I'll show you what we've got here!" she practically jumped up out of the chair and led me through a door that revealed the bathroom.

'_Perfect'_ I thought, just like Sunny had described for through the bathroom, another door opened to reveal the storage place where they kept absolutely everything under the sun.

Healer Peace began to explain a few items to me, and handed me several things, but I really wasn't paying much attention. Instead, I was too absorbed with looking around at all the different products that I could possibly take back to the caves. The possibilities were endless.

"It's a little overwhelming, isn't it?" she said to me, breaking me out of my reverie.

"Oh, sorry Healer Peace, I'm just..."

"Please dear, just call me Peace; we're all friends here!"

I just smiled at that as she led me back through to the bathroom and then to the exam room. I was slightly discouraged when I noticed that she locked the door to the storage room. How was I going to get the keys to get in there? She must have noticed my furrowed brow.

"Something wrong?" Peace asked me.

"Oh, it's just... no one will know what I got from that room, will they?" I asked apprehensively, pulling off that part perfectly.

"Oh no dear! There isn't any sort of camera or security system in there, don't worry. We decided against that sort of thing for your privacy. Well, not just you, but everyone else, you know. Girls get worried about that all the time, you know."

I nodded and she smiled encouragingly.

"Well, that supply that I gave you should last you a little while at least, please don't hesitate to come back here if you need be!"

"I won't hesitate, I'll come right back here if I need anything," I vowed and she absolutely beamed. Simple things, I supposed.

"Do you have any questions?" she asked me, but before I could answer a nurse burst through the door.

"Healer Peace!"

"Why whatever is the rush? You know better than to come in during an appointment, Grace," she said in a disapproving tone.

"I know, and I'm truly sorry," she spoke to the both of us, nodding in my direction. "But there is an emergency out here! We need you to come quick!"

Healer Peace turned towards me with an apologetic expression on her face.

"Please stay right here, I'll be back once this is sorted out."

"Take your time, I understand," I told her and they exited the room.

As soon as the door closed and I was sure that they had gone far enough away from the door so as to not hear me, I jumped off the bed thing and raced through the bathroom, trying to open up that door to the storage room. Of course it was locked, but I just hoped for some sort of—wait a minute. Sitting on the small table on top of my chart was Healer Peace's keys.

I raced back and grabbed both the keys and my knapsack, closing and locking the bathroom door behind me. If she happened to come back, she would just think that I had to use the washroom; nothing wrong with that. Her keys would be missing, but that is nothing. I could just plant them in here and make her think she left them in there.

I tried four different keys before choosing a smaller golden one that finally unlocked the door. I was in! I closed the door gently behind me, noting that it was the only door in and out of this room. One quick look around and I realized that I should have paid more attention. All these products were behind cages and required the right key to open the locks.

I wondered why they went to such measures for these things after all, I mean, wouldn't they want them to be widespread sot that little humans wouldn't be running around? I'm sure that the answer to that was probably part of my briefing on the ship, but I think I might have skipped past that part, not interested in it. I sighed and walked up to a cage holding one of the products in my hands and tried about twelve keys before I got to the right one.

I realized that I would only have time to get about three or four products at this pace, especially not knowing when the Healer would be back. I finally got the cage open and unzipped my bag, taking out the three sweaters in it, piling boxes in the empty space. I grabbed about ten of those before closing it up and turning to see what else was there. I threw in a sweater on top of them while I started to find the right key to another product that I recognized from the ones that Healer Peace gave to me. I was seriously sweating by this point and the keys were fumbling around in my hands.

I closed my eyes and blew out a breath; I could do this. I repeated that to myself like a mantra as I went through seven keys before finding the right one to this cage, piling the packages inside the bag. I thought I heard footsteps and stopped, frozen like a dear in the headlights. Was I caught? Was this all over? I held my breath and realized that it was coming on the other side of one of the walls, not from the exam room that I was in before.

I quickly got back to work, realizing I was running out of time. I scanned the walls and found some cans. Only four keys later I was in to that cage, reading the label.

_Directions: Spray directly onto the male's—_

Okay, I didn't need to read all of it; that would work. I blushed profusely, even though it was just me in the room and started shoving about twenty cans into my bag. I looked in and saw that there was room for probably one more product. I spotted some small packages that looked like those old latex prophylactics that the humans used to use. I knew that whatever they used now was stronger than the old latex, but I didn't know what it was, nor did I care to find out right that second.

Six keys later I was in and stuffing hundreds of them inside the bag before zipping it closed again. I grabbed my sweater and ran through to the bathroom, throwing the now heavy bag on the floor. I was just about to lock up the storage room when a knocking came on the bathroom door.

My heart stopped.

"Earth Dancing Wind?" Healer Peace called from the other side.

"Ye—yes?" I asked with a shaking voice.

"Is everything okay in there?"

I let out a breath; she wasn't about to bust me.

"Yeah, I just felt a little sick for a minute, I'll be out real soon!" I called back.

"Take your time; I'll be waiting for you out here, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, locking the door.

I turned towards the counter and gently placed the keys on it, making sure they didn't make any sort of noise before turning on the taps and wetting my face. I looked in the mirror and saw that I was very flushed. That would make my 'sickness' that much more believable. I wet it and dabbed it dry before opening the door again.

"There. Are you okay?" she asked me and I nodded.

"I don't usually fair well in Healer's offices," I said to her. "I should probably go before it gets worse."

"Did you drive here? Are you sure you're alright to get home?" Healer Peace asked; genuinely concerned.

"Oh, no, my best friend is waiting down in the parking lot for me; I'll be alright to get home." I paused with my hand on the door handle. "Thank you so much, Healer Peace."

"Anytime, dear. Be safe getting home!"

"I will, thank you."

I was about halfway down the hall when she called me back and I nearly had a heart attack. I saw her running towards me and wanted to duck and scream, but I saw that she was just holding my sweater.

"I noticed you left this on the bathroom floor in there, and I didn't want you to forget it!" she smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Have a great day!"

"You too!"

I then turned and half ran towards the door that was my freedom. I opened it up and there were two men on the other side of it; one had his hand outstretched as if he were about to open it up.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized, stepping aside to let them in.

"Thank you," the first one said to me and the other one nodded.

I exited and decided to run down the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. I felt like such a criminal as I made my way down four flights of stairs to the lobby. I exited the building and felt like skipping towards the cars, but didn't want to bring that much attention upon myself.

I went over to the passenger side of the car and saw that Mel was in it and Ian wasn't in the vehicle at all. I opened up the door.

"Where's Ian?"

"In the van, he didn't want to listen to our girl talk anymore," she explained, moving through to the driver's seat and I heard the roar of the van's engine come to life as Jared started it.

I turned to look at the van and gave them a small smile. I noticed Jared gave me the thumbs up again, silently asking if I had gotten the job done. I beamed at him and put two thumbs up before climbing into the car.

"You did it!" Mel practically screeched as the van back out beside us and she began to reverse as well.

"I did, and it's all thanks to you, Sunny." I said and she shook her head.

"No Wanda, you did this, not me."

"Did you get any good stuff?" Mel asked and I shrugged.

"I have no idea, I just stuffed things into my bag and left."

I was still sweating so I cranked up the air conditioning.

"Well, look on the bright side, it's over with and we can go relax for the time being!" Mel said enthusiastically and I nodded.

**????? POV**

We went up to the fourth floor, suite number 413 and I was about to open the door when it seemed to open for me. On the other side, was a small blonde; the one that we needed. She blushed a little and stepped aside to let us in first. I thanked her and entered the small office.

Once the door closed, Sky started hissing at me.

"That was the girl! We should be following her!"

"I'm aware of that!" I turned to him. "I've placed a tracker on the van though when no one was looking, so we'll be able to follow them anywhere."

He looked up at me and smiled.

"Always one step ahead of the game, aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes and smiled at the receptionist that was filing something.

"You wouldn't be able to give me any information on that blonde girl that just left, would you honey?"

She frowned at me.

"No. All our records are confidential."

"Is it worth your job?" I asked her and she frowned again.

"I don't know what you mean."

I sighed and pulled out my badge from the inside pocket of my jacket.

"My name is Red Fires Falling Up and this is my partner Skies Above. We're part of the new tracking division, looking for humans. I need to see those records, ma'am."

Her eyes grew wide and fearful once she saw our badges.

"You – you don't think that she's human do you?" she asked, horrified.

"No, we don't. She is not a human, but we believe that she has been linked to them. Her records, please," I asked again and she promptly handed them over to me.

I took a quick glimpse of them and handed them to Sky.

"Make copies of these, I need to speak to the Healer," I instructed him and he walked into the office to make them while I went to the back to speak with Healer Peace.

"Ah, here you are," I exclaimed and she looked at me with a confused face.

I repeated the little introduction that I had just given her receptionist and she then treated me with the utmost consideration. She told me everything about the visit and I requested to see the store room.

"Yes, of course," she complied easily and opened it up for me.

Inside was all the contraceptives under the sun and she began explaining them all, but I waved her off.

"I don't need to know about them, I just wanted to see around," I said, noting that there were a lot of supplies missing. "When was the last time you had a delivery?"

"Last night."

"Good," I turned to her with a smile.

"Thank you for being so co-operative, you will be receiving a gift of gratitude in the next couple of days," I said to her. "My partner and I must be off right now though."

"You're welcome. Anything I could do to help," she told us and I left the room, out to the lobby.

"Let's go," I said to Sky and we left the office.

Once we were in the parking lot, about to climb into the car again, he spoke up.

"What's the verdict?"

"They've got a lot of contraceptives."

He shuddered. "You don't think?"

"What?" I challenged him, pulling out of the space.

"Well, could they be making a lot of babies to have more humans in their arsenal?"

I frowned at him.

"No. They wouldn't use these if they did. Now we've got to find them and intercept them soon, I'm running out of patience. I want these humans, and I want to know what they're doing. Most importantly, I want Souls inserted in them at the first opportunity."

**Dun dun dunnn!!!**

**A lot of you asked when ???? was coming back, so here's a re-appearance for you!**

**Also, I know that some of you have checked it out already, but I have another short story up right now called I'm Right Here. It's for The Host as well, but it will only be about five or six chapters or so! So go on over and check that out as well! **

**Review! : )**


	15. Tension

**A/N: I know. Long time no update. I've been overly busy. It was the last week of my co-op placement and I had a million things to do, so this sort of got pushed back until Friday when I baby sat and got a lot done. So really no excuse... Yeah.**

**Thanks to Vanessa-Wolfe303, hearts-4-stars, TK-MR, mcena99, EdwardAlways, xscribbles819, shouvley, LadyMalfoyx, EagleGirl12, irockmysox123, TwiHard09, WhiteCamellia, Anaeli, mediate89, vanilfrappe, sarah12345, TinaK22 and valabo for your awesome reviews!**

**Well, here it is! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

We headed to the hotel and I allowed myself to fully relax. This was over. This was the part that I was worried about the most out of everything on the raid. Now we were completely in the clear and it was smooth sailing from here back to the caves. We just had a few more stops to make to get some medical supplies; we still needed boxes of Heal and such then gather up a few souls and go home. I was really happy now.

I leaned back against the head rest and Mel looked over at me before smiling.

"What are you so happy about?" she nudged me and winked.

"I'm happy because we're almost done! We can go home soon!" I told her excitedly.

"Really," she said. "I thought that you might be excited for... other reasons..." I frowned before trying to make a connection to what she was thinking.

"I don't get it," I admitted after a few seconds of thinking and she rolled her eyes.

"Well then I'll just tell you what I'm excited for," she said, not waiting for me to even respond. "I'm excited to get back to the hotel room that belongs to Jared and I alone and dig into this bag that you're holding on your lap."

My jaw dropped at her confession as she ginned suggestively and wiggled down in her seat.

"Mel!" I said in disbelief, my cheeks growing red at a rapid pace. I turned around and saw that Sunny was hiding behind a veil of hair, trying to look out the window.

"What? It's true, I'm not ashamed of it," she shrugged and I shook my head, looking out the window to watch the scenery go by.

We rapidly got on the highway and out of Seattle completely, heading for the hotel that Jared had booked around the border. Jared had assured us that the hotel was close to it, so we could just zip over it the next day, but knowing his sense of direction, we'd be somewhere far away.

I pushed the bag onto the floor at my feet and put them up so that my heels were resting on the dashboard in front of me. We zoomed along for about an hour and a half before Jared signalled to get off the freeway and we followed suit.

"It's about time," Mel complained. "I'm about to combust."

I shook my head as she exited and it was quiet until we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. Mel parked and leaned back on the seat.

"I don't care which one of you goes in there, but you'd better make it snappy," she threatened us and I turned back to look at Sunny, taking my feet down and putting my shoes on.

"No no," she protested, opening the door. "Let me go, you've done enough today."

"Sunny! I am more than capable of this!" I said back to her, but the door had already closed. I sighed and opened up my own door, climbing out and racing after her through the parking lot.

"What are you doing?" Sunny hissed at me once I had caught up with her.

"I'm coming with you. I said that I was fine," I shrugged and she stopped walking.

"No, you can't. Ian's going to kill me for letting you come; especially after all you did today."

Sunny took a firm hold on my upper arm and tried to steer me back towards the car, but I rooted myself to the spot and remained in place.

"Wanda please! I don't want Ian to be mad!"

"Can you just stop! I don't need you ragging on me about being out either! I am perfectly capable of doing it myself! I'm not some china doll that needs to be watched all the time!"

I wrenched my arm out of Sunny's hand and marched off towards the office in a huff now. Why did it always seem that people were trying to prevent me from going anywhere? I wasn't as breakable as they thought; I didn't need constant supervision or anything. I reached the office and opened the door, walking in. I guess that I didn't realize the exact force that I used when I opened the door as it banged back against the wall and I jumped, as did the soul behind the desk.

"Sorry," I apologized softly, afraid that I was caught; souls weren't supposed to lose their temper after all.

To my surprise, the soul just laughed.

"I'm sorry, I've been meaning to get that door fixed for awhile now; it seems to be flying back with the slightest of touches," she apologized, standing up,. "Now, how can I help you today?"

"Well my boyfriend booked two rooms today under the name Crawls to the Moon," I told her. "But we seem to have a problem because we now require three rooms instead of two. I'm really hoping that you can get us another room and make it possible for us to get another room close to the other two?"

She gave me a huge smile and nodded. "Of course! Let me just pull up the room numbers and the keys for the other two and then we'll see about the third one; though it shouldn't be a problem. We're not overly booked tonight, so you're in luck!"

"Great!" I said enthusiastically and leaned against the counter while she entered the computer and keyed up some cards for us.

"Here you go! These are the other two rooms; 212 and 214, and I'll just get the other one for you!"

"Thanks so much," I said to her, taking the two keys from her and looking at them, nodding.

"Here's the other room for you!" she smiled at me, handing me the other one. "It's room 210, so they're all right beside each other for you!"

"Thank you so much again!" I thanked her, taking all three keys and heading towards the door.

"It's not a problem at all! Come back if you need anything at all! We'd be more than happy to get something for you!"

"I will remember that," I promised, pulling on the door lightly so that I didn't bash it off the wall again and walked outside again.

I put my hands in my pockets, putting my head down and made my way back over to the cars, where Sunny and Mel had already all unloaded everything of ours onto the pavement and were standing beside the small pile. Mel practically jumped me once I was within reach and I shook my head, handing her one of the keys. She jumped up and down and hugged me, grabbing her things and tearing up the stairs.

"Gotta run! Need to get ready!" she shouted from above us somewhere and I couldn't help but to chuckle.

"Here Sunny," I said, handing her the other key and she looked at me wide eyed.

"But... but where are you and Ian going to stay? I thought that Jared only got us two rooms."

"He did, but I managed to get us a third."

"I can't stay with Kyle," she whispered hastily to me, grabbing her bags as well.

"I gave you the room with two bedrooms in it, don't worry about it," I reassured her, taking my own as well, but felt something tugging me out of my hand.

I turned to see Ian grinning behind me with his hand on my bag, but I frowned a little and pulled it away from him.

"Wanda, I can take it, just let me have it, you've done enough today," he said to me.

"I can do it," I said stubbornly back to him, walking away towards the stairs.

"Wanda!" I could head Ian calling after me and heavy footsteps following behind me. I ignored them and continue on walking.

"Wanda!" he called again and I turned around. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to take your bag; you're right, you can do it. Now let's just go up to our room and get to sleep. I want you to recover after today. You need the rest; I know that it was hard on you."

I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw in frustration. I opened my eyes to see Ian standing there looking very confused before I turned back around and ran up the stairs, tearing down the hall trying to reach the room before Ian.

"Wanda!" he yelled out from behind me again, hot on my trail, and I was worried that I wasn't going to get there in time to get the door open and everything, but I reached it.

I got the key out of my pocket and slid it into the door while I could still hear him running after me and it flashed red. I felt his body press up against me as I took the card out and tried it the other way and it worked. I opened the door and stepped inside, going around and flipping on the lights around the room. There was a queen sized bed in the middle, a small couch, a bathroom and a television on a stand. I dropped my bags and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Care to tell me what that was all about?" Ian asked, letting the door close behind him with a small bang.

I shrugged and pretended to become interested in the bedspread. I heard him sigh and walk over to kneel in front of me.

"Wanda, please tell me what's wrong," he pleaded and I finally allowed myself to look into his eyes.

"I just didn't like how you phrased what you said is all. I handled today considerably well, Ian. I don't need the rest and a nap like a three year old, you know."

He placed his hands on my knees and looked back at me.

"I'm sorry. It was just a hard day on me, so I assumed that you would feel the same way."

"Why?"

He frowned a little. "What?"

"Why was this day so hard for you?" I asked again.

"It was hard watching you go in the building alone, Wanda. I wanted more than anything to go with you. I'm just glad that you were okay and everything. I felt bad. It's because I didn't want you to feel that you absolutely had to go in there alone. I just..." he ran a hand through his hair. "If you were actually, you know, carrying a child, I would not want you to be alone and do all those things. I felt practically useless sitting there waiting for you to come back out. I was s nervous wreck, I'll admit it."

"But everything was fine and I handled it perfectly; I don't know why you were so worried. I can handle myself, after all," I said, reassuring him.

"I know, and that's what makes me nervous, I guess. I just want to take care of you for now and forever. I want to protect you against the evils out there. I want you to... well, you know that I want you to experience life out there, but not like this. I regretted ever having to send you into that office when it's not even a possibility for us and...."

"Wait, what?" I interrupted him, holding a hand up, silencing him. "What do you mean it's not even a possibility for us?"

"I mean that it can't happen. We can't let it happen. I couldn't do that to you and let you deal with it on your own."

"So you're saying that if it did happen you would just leave me?" I was getting angrier at his words.

"What? No, that's crazy! I wouldn't even dream of putting you in a position where that would even be a possibility!"

"So you don't want children." I said flatly to him.

"That's not the point! I never said that I didn't want them, it's just not a likely occurrence."

I frowned and shook my head.

"So basically you want to 'protect me' for the rest of my life, and in order to do that, I have to stay inside for the rest of my life, with you by my side wherever I go so that nothing happens, right? Oh, and I'm also not allowed to have children, because it could be a threat."

"That's not what I'm saying at all!" Ian said, clearly appalled.

"Really. Because that's the vibe I'm getting."

He sighed. "Look, can we just forget I even said anything? Clearly I don't know how to think when I'm tired. Let's just get changed and get to sleep. Tomorrow gets us closer to home, you know."

"I know, but it's not like I can exactly forget what happened, Ian. I can take care of myself. I know how. This is not the only life that I have had; I do know what I'm doing."

"I know, and I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean anything. Just please, Wanda, please."

I shook my head and got up off the bed, taking my bag and walking into the bathroom. I slammed the door behind me, locking it before sitting on the edge of the tub, holding my head in my hands. I didn't understand what he was so worried about. It's not like I was completely incompetent and couldn't handle myself. I have lived nine lives, or did he seem to forget that.

I didn't want to rely on him, I wanted to prove myself to everyone that I could do this, and I couldn't do that with Ian constantly hovering and trying to protect me. What he had said about children had bothered me. So if by some chance we had been able to conceive a child, he didn't want me to have it? I didn't understand at all. I thought that it would be a blessing if that were to happen and that no matter what we would keep it. No matter what we possibly had to do.

Everyone in the caves that was close to me knew that it was my calling to be a mother, and Ian had basically told me that it couldn't happen with him. He is the only one that I would ever consider having children with. This was my last life. I would die a natural death with my host body and be buried with Ian. There was no doubt about it. I couldn't help the tears that fell onto the floor in front of me.

**Ian POV**

I didn't get what was wrong, I really didn't. I did know that I wanted Wanda to come out of the bathroom so that I could talk to her. I ended up following her to the door and leaned against it after it had slammed, slumping down to the floor.

I hoped that she wasn't upset over anything; that she was just changing, but I knew in my heard that she was distraught. I tried thinking back to the conversation that we had just had to try and figure out why. To try and see what had gone wrong. I closed my eyes and thought it over.

Once I had gone over the whole exchange, I banged my head back against the door, making a loud bang. I had screwed up big time. I couldn't believe it. Not only had I basically told my love that she needed me around all of the time, to oversee everything that she did, I had essentially told her that I didn't want children with her; which was not true at all.

I did want them with her, and if we didn't ever get out of the caves; well, I had a goal of a few years from now, but if we never got out I would talk it over with Wanda. Kids could be raised in the caves, though it's not exactly an ideal place for them to live and grow up, I would rather have that then nothing at all. But I had blown it. I would be very surprised if Wanda even talked to me about anything after that. I had to show her that I didn't mean it; I had to make it up to her somehow.

I thought and thought for a long time about how I was going to come up with something and finally decided on enlisting Kyle. We were both in the dog houses, so to say, and together I bet that we could come up with something to at least attempt at getting back in their good graces. I jumped up and ripped open the front door, running down to Kyle's room and banging on the door. After a few knocks, it opened to reveal a distraught looking Kyle.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I need your help," I admitted, not liking it very much.

He looked me over before nodding and opening it a little wider to let me in. I stepped in and looked around. His room looked exactly like ours.

"So what is it?" he asked me and I rubbed the back of my neck.

"I screwed up," I admitted, sitting down on the couch and he chuckled.

"Tell me about it."

"So how do we fix this?" I asked, hoping he would have some sort of an answer.

"I don't know. I've been trying to think of something for a few days now, and I've still got nothing."

I sighed. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Well, maybe if we both put our heads together, we could think of something?" I half said to him in a question.

"First, tell me what exactly you did wrong?" Kyle asked, flopping down on the bed, looking at me.

"Where's Sunny?" I asked.

"In the bathroom," I nodded and sighed. "Guess I'd better answer your question, right?" He nodded and I sighed again before telling him all of what we had said to each other.

"You fucked up, I'm not going to lie to you," he said, half chuckling.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him and he shrugged.

We started talking about possible things that we could do, but none of them sounded just right. I needed something that would appeal to Wanda and allow me the time to get back in her good graces, and show her that I didn't mean anything that I said. Once we had come up with something, I went back to our room and knocked on the bathroom door.

"Wanda?" I said softly to her, hoping that she could hear me. "Wanda? I know that you might not want to speak with me right this second, but Sunny does. She..." I sighed. "She wants you to go down to her and Kyle's room."

There was no response from the other side of the door.

"Look, if you don't want to see me on your way out, that's fine too. I'll go and look out the window until you've gone."

I made my way over there and yelled out to her once I was there. I heard the bathroom door open and close as did the front door. Once it shut, I turned and got to work at once. A knock sounded and I ran over to open it, revealing Kyle, who was loaded down with materials.

"Perfect," I said to him, shutting the door and we got to work together.

**Mel POV**

I ran up those stairs as fast as I could, leaving everyone in the dust. I wanted to get ready for Jared, as this would be a big night for us. I reached the room and opened it, running for the bedroom and slamming the door shut, locking it behind me.

_"Let Jared wait,"_ I thought. "_The anticipation will be worth it for him."_

I smiled and began ripping thought my bag, looking for what I was going to wear. It had been a few months for both of us, as we hadn't been able to get our hands on any protection, and I knew that Jared was looking forward to this probably as much as I was. I located the red garment and walked into the bathroom.

I quickly put it on, putting my discarded clothes into my bag and started at myself in the mirror. I sighed and ran a brush through my hair.

"Melanie?" I heard Jared call from the other side of the bedroom door. "Let me in!"

"Give me just one more minute!" I called back to him, smiling a little. He sounded a little desperate.

I searched through my purse until I found the right tube of lip gloss and slathered it on, making sure that there were several layers on. I smiled at my reflection in the mirror before nodding. It was time. I wrenched the curtains closed and flipped off both the bathroom and bedroom lights before leaping over to the door and unlocking it, launching myself onto the bed to wait.

The door opened slowly and I could feel my heart beating about a hundred beats a second. I hoped he was up for this right now and wasn't going to turn me down.

"Melanie?" he said softly, but I didn't say anything.

He huffed and I heard his bag drop down to the ground. "Just like her to want to sleep on a night like this," he muttered to himself and I could hear him searching around blindly in the dark for the light switch.

He found it, flicking it on and illuminating the room in light. I gave him a small smile as his eyes combed the room searching for me and then locking with mine once he spotted me. Jared let out a low whistle, looking over my body from where I was sitting on the bed, leaning back on my hands with my legs crossed.

"Are you just going to stand there?" I asked him, growing impatient.

"I'm just admiring the view, love," he replied, his voice lower than it normally was and a bit husky.

I smirked and uncrossed my legs, raising my eyebrows, daring him to come closer. I could see Jared visibly biting his lip.

"Are you coming or not?" I asked him.

"Sooner than you'd think," he replied, striding over to me and pulling my hand so that I was standing beside him.

We stared at each other for about a minute. I was analyzing his every reaction; every twitch of his eyes, every breath he took, I noticed it and smiled. Jared gently ran his fingers over my lips, teasing me.

"Jared," I whispered, almost unable to keep standing there. His very presence was making my knees shake.

"Be patient, Mel," he whispered back, touching our noses together. "I don't want this to be rushed."

He was right, of course, but just standing there I could feel the desire pooling in the pit of my stomach and I didn't figure that I was going to last long. My fingertips crept down to the bottom of Jared's shirt and began toying with it. I could see him smile a little and he nodded slightly, causing me to nod along with him; neither of us dared to pull away and kept our noses in contact with each other. I smiled in return and started to tug his shirt up. Once it got high enough, I pulled away from him enough to pull it up and over his head.

Once it was off and thrown over my shoulder somewhere, I looked him all over. I boldly placed my hands on his chest and he jumped a little bit.

"They're cold," he explained, after I looked at him

"Oh, sorry," I apologized and he shook his head.

"No need."

I smiled and moved my hands down his firm chest and down his sculpted abs. I got to the top of his jeans and traced my fingertips lightly around the waistband, watching and feeling as his muscles contracted, to the back before hugging him tightly to me. Jared's calloused hands caressed down my back, light as feathers until they reached the back of my thighs. He gave them a squeeze before tightening his grip and pulling up a little bit. I took that as my cue to jump up and wrap my legs around his torso.

I wrapped my arms around the back of his head, running my fingers through his hair, knowing full well that he couldn't resist it. As if on cue, he began to moan and close his eyes, tilting his head back.

"You like that?" I teased and he nodded, opening his eyes. They were now full of lust and I knew it wouldn't be long now.

He began to kiss me slowly and sensually, trying to make it last while what I really wanted to do was rip the clothes from our bodies and get to work. His tongue lightly traced my lips, looking for the entrance that I willingly gave him almost immediately. I moaned into his mouth, but regretfully we had to break away to breathe. I hated that part about being a human the most during moments like these.

Jared didn't let his lips leave my body. Instead, he turned us around and pressed my back up against the wall. When he held me there, he kissed all the way down my neck, along my collarbone and up the other side. I let my head fall back to give him a greater access to it and he actually growled, pressing himself closer. When he did that, I could feel _him_ pressing into me and I began to move around, but he placed his hands on my lips, keeping me still.

"Please Mel, just let me do this. Let me lead you."

I sighed, but nodded, giving in to him. I would do that if he really wanted to; and evidently he did. He smiled before hungrily attacking my lips. I answered eagerly and let him deepen the kiss, pushing my head back against the wall. I moaned again, and this time he thrust his tongue into my mouth and they tangled, each one fighting for dominance. Eventually I gave up, he could have this round and we broke away again, panting and he peppered my face with kisses while I ran my hands up and down his back.

We kissed again and about five minutes later he surprised me.

"Get my belt," he tried to whisper in my ear, but it was broken and choppy from his ragged breath that was also blowing into my ear.

I opened my eyes that were closed for confirmation that he actually wanted me to. He smiled and nodded, chuckling a little bit. I grinned and pressed my lips eagerly to his, and he was just as receptive. My hands came around from the back and around his waist. Again, I could feel his abs tighten as they made their way down the front of his stomach to the front of his jeans. I fumbled with his belt, trying to multi task while kissing him but I couldn't get it.

I broke my lips from his and looked down. He shifted his weight, so that I was perched on one of his legs while chuckling.

"Need help?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"I can do this," I answered, figuring it out and undoing it and fumbled around with the button next.

"You don't have to do that," Jared said to me, reaching to do it himself, but I lightly slapped his hand out of the way.

I got it undone and zipped open the zipper and he supported my bottom with his hands, kissing me while taking us from the wall over to the bed. He gently lowered me onto it before sitting back up to take his pants off.

"Now now, what are we to do?" he asked his voice even lower than before. "There is still too much clothing between us."

I could see him pointedly look down to the little garment that I was wearing, his eyes raking over my appearance; it didn't leave much to the imagination and I knew it, especially laying down like this.

"I don't know, Mr. Howe. What do you propose that we do about it?" I teased him and reached my arms up, pulling his shoulders down a little until he was straddling me.

"Well, I quite like it, so I'm going to try not to rip it off of you."

I giggled as he slid the soft top up my stomach, exposing it inch by inch, kissing each bit of new skin that was revealed. I got goose bumps every time his lips touched my skin and my center became even more heated. He worked it up until my breasts were exposed before taking it all the way off and lavishing them with attention.

He finally freed his hands and toyed with the sides of my thong, grabbing the fragile string and a ripping sound was heard. I giggled and he looked up at me blushing.

"Sorry," he apologized, but I just pulled his chin up until his lips met mine once again.

He discarded the ripped material and I reached down to free him of the last piece of clothing that was between us, sliding them down and he kicked them off. Neither of us made the move right away to move on to the next step, but continued kissing. It would come soon enough and it would be beautiful.

**Wanda POV**

I came out of the bathroom and saw Ian standing by the window looking outside like he said he'd be and I felt a little guilty. I wanted to hold him and tell him that it didn't matter, but Sunny evidently needed me and she was going through something bigger than just the silly fight that Ian and I were having. So I opened the door and stepped into the hallway to see Kyle coming towards me, his arms full of something. I didn't know what they were up to, but I nodded as he passed and continued on.

I knocked three times on Sunny's door and she opened it a crack before seeing who it was and throwing it open.

"I thought it was Kyle," she explained.

"No, I just passed him. What's he doing anyways?" I asked her, sitting down on the couch while she closed the door.

"I have no idea. He just gathered some stuff up and when I saw him he was trying to get out the door, but about to drop everything." She sat beside me and sighed. "Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "Ian and I got into a silly fight. But that doesn't matter; are _you_ okay?"

"Wanda, whatever. It will just take me awhile to warm up to Kyle again. But seriously," she turned to face me and took my hand in both of hers. "Please tell me what happened."

I looked at her face and nodded. I couldn't keep it from her.

She sat and listened as I explained everything that had happened and what he had said to me. She reacted just the way that someone should, gasping in all the right places and everything. When I finished, she jumped up and started to march towards the door.

"Whoa, hold it. Where do you think that you're going?" I asked her, grabbing her wrist turning her around.

"I'm going to beat him up."

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"No, really. Get back here."

"I'm serious, Wanda. He was really mean to you."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go and do that. First of all, he would just stand there and let you and second, you're not a violent person, Sunny."

"You're right," she sighed, sitting down on the floor.

"Come on, let's go watch a movie or something," I suggested, bouncing over to her room and flopping down on the bed.

"Just as long as it's not a chick flick or anything," she said, lying down next to me as I turned on the tv.

"Are you kidding? They all are nowadays." I found one and turned up the volume, throwing the controller down onto the floor.

We watched for about five minutes before Kyle came back into the hotel room and walked to where we were.

"Do you mind if I close the door?" he asked and I shook my head, not waiting for a reason as to why.

We continued to watch our movie, but I couldn't honestly tell you what it was about because I was thinking about how to apologize to Ian. There was a knock at the door shortly after Kyle had closed it and I turned to Sunny frowning, only to see that she had the same expression on her face. We both burst out laughing and Sunny got up to answer the door.

"Yes—oh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth. "Oh Kyle," she murmured, stepping out of the room.

I frowned in confusion as she stepped out of the room and quickly scrambled off the bed to follow her.

"Sunny?" I asked, walking out into the main room, stopping dead in my tracks.

The room was literally decked out in hundreds of roses absolutely everywhere. My eyes almost popped out of my head from an overload of red. I could see that attached to each stem was a small card. I reached out for the nearest rose and read it,

_"I love the way that your eyes sparkle in the moonlight."_

I smiled softly as I read it and tuned into their conversation for a second.

"All the cards have written on them the reasons why I love you Sunny..." I tuned them out. This was their special moment and I wasn't going to ruin it for them.

Instead, I quietly tip-toed towards the door and opened it as silently as I could, making sure that it didn't make a loud noise as I stepped into the hall. When I turned around, I just about jumped out of my skin. Ian was standing beside the door, leaning against the wall.

"Ian, you scared me," I told him, resting a hand over my heart to attempt at calming it down.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, looking at me. I could see in his eyes that there was a double meaning behind those words and they didn't just mean for startling me.

I nodded and started walking back to our room, but he caught up with me and took my right hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. I smiled up at him, leaning into his side. It was hard to be mad at him for long anyways. When we got to the room, he reached out with his free hand and placed the key in the slot, letting the green light flash while he opened it and gestured for me to go first.

I furrowed my brow in confusion, but he placed a hand on the small of my back and ushered me forwards with a huge grin on his face. I entered but it was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. Ian let the door closed as I searched blindly for the light switch. I found it and flipped it on, gasping at what I saw.

**So I'll be replying to your reviews tomorrow night/Tuesday. I start my very first day at College tomorrow, and I have Tuesday and Wednesday off to write and catch up!**

**I know that this is like a week late, but Yay for Canada winning the Gold Medal in the IIHF tournament 5 years in a row! : ) It makes me super proud to be a Canadian when in the last minute in a game the entire crown is on their feet chanting and yelling.**

**Review! : )  
And wish me luck for tomorrow!!! **

**Oh. OH! I NEARLY FORGOT!  
Almost a year ago... I remember reading this, but only recently actually remembered about the article... Steph Meyer talked with MTV about a Host movie. The link to the interview will be on my profile. **


	16. Night Life

**A/N: Hi! I really am alive. School is kicking my butt, is all, so posting is going to be a little off as I'm trying to write in the spare seconds that I have. But! Good news. This chapter was 9096 words and 19 pages long or something. I was going to split it, but decided not to. : ) **

**Also, I'm in a bit of a mood today as my stupid car got a flat tire on the way to school and we had to change it on the side of the road. After we get the spare on and get going, there's a 4 car pile-up on the road that took forever to get through, making me late for class. Then I go to drive home and notice that the other front tire was dangerously low as well and almost popped. As a result of this bad moodiness, the end of this chapter has some smut to it. So if you're not a smut fan, skip over three quarters of the last section. I just had to take my pent-up anger from the day on something, so it just elongated this chapter, savvy? :P **

**Thanks to shouvley, TK-MR, WhiteCamellia, sarah12345, Lady Malfoyx, xScribbles819, Vanessa-Wolfe303, TwiHard09, valabo, Honey450, Eagle Girl12, hearts-4-stars, SeanEmma3Evr, .Silenced-Peace., , hanaharoo, EdwardAlways, mediate89, vanilfrappe and reachforthesky for your wonderful reviews! *Side note, only 8 more until we hit 200!!!! Yay for you guys, you're incredible and I love each and every person that reviews!!!***

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

I flipped on the light to see that the room had completely transformed. Only about half of the lights that should have come on did, effectively dimming it and creating an entirely different atmosphere. I don't know how, but somehow the bed had been pushed back against the far wall under the window, and everything else had been pushed to the sides of the room. In the middle in a great space, there was a single table and chair. I tentatively took a step towards it before stopping and turning around to face Ian. He looked very anxious and nervous, so I smiled up at him.

"How... how did you do all of this?"

He smiled down at me.

"It doesn't matter how, Wanda. I would do anything for you, you know that." I could see him looking over my head towards the table before looking down at me.

"Do you want me to go over there or something?" I asked, and he nodded.

I sighed and turned around to it and took a few small steps. Once I got closer, I noticed that there was a creme covered envelope resting on the black wrought iron table. The chair was also the same iron that the table was, and the seat was covered in red velvet.

I carefully picked up the envelope and saw that my name was written on it in Ian's writing. I traced my fingers lightly over the ink and smiled. I didn't know what was inside this envelope, but I was content to just sit here and admire the outside.

"Open it," I heard Ian's voice carry over to me from somewhere, but I didn't look up to see where it was coming from.

Gently, I turned it over and broke the seal on the back, opening it up to reveal a red paper inside of it. Curious, I pulled it out and unfolded it, setting the envelope carefully down on the table top, sitting down on the small chair at the same time. I began to read the contents that were written on the inside, and immediately started tearing up.

"Ian," I said softly, looking up to see where he was and gasped at what I saw.

Ian was standing a little off to the side of me, smiling gently down at me. I noticed that the lights had been dimmed even more, but I stared wide eyed in wonder at the two dozen candles or so that had been lit and were carefully placed around the room. They cast little shadows upon the wall that seemed to grow and shrink as the candle light flickered every so often.

I bit my lip and held out my hand for him to take. In a matter of two strides, he was grasping it in both of his hands, pulling me up beside him.

"Did you read it?"

"Only a little bit," I admitted and he smiled.

"Continue then."

I shook my head and immediately worry crossed his face.

"No? Is it too much? I'm sorry Wanda; I just wanted to make it..."

I silenced him by standing up and placing my right index finger on his soft lips.

"I didn't finish it because I want you to read it to me."

A smile crept upon his face and he nodded. I took my finger away from his lips, but he just brought up my left hand that he was still holding and kissed the back of it. He walked over leading me back to the chair and sat down in it, turning me gently and grasping my hips, guiding them backwards so that I was sitting in his lap.

"Ian," I protested, but he held me tighter to him.

"Shh," he cooed in my ear, tucking me into his right side and wrapping his arm protectively around me, reaching for the letter.

I rested my head on his chest as he began to read.

"_My Wanda,_

_You already know all of my history, but I still feel that I have some explaining to do when it comes to our relationship. We don't talk about us nearly as much as we should. I want you to read this; this letter is the key to my heart, I am pouring out my soul onto these pages and I'm scared as hell, but I know that I can trust you and I love you._

_Just a few months ago, I was hell bent on getting rid of the souls off of our planet with the intention of getting revenge for my parents death; but I have changed. I changed because of you, Wanda. It is because of you that I got to see just what these foreign souls were. I got a chance to meet one, and hold conversations with one. You changed my whole perspective on life._

_You already know that I was lonely and angry after we came to the caves, and I honestly didn't think that I would ever break out of that mould. More than once I wanted so badly to just go out in the open and have the souls claim my body as theirs; there was nothing to live for, after all. Before you came, I was one raid away from ending my human life that way and giving my body up as a host._

_I met you and I know that I was hostile towards you and I will forever regret that and spend the rest of my days with you trying to make up for it; but even then, I was in love with you. I never recognized it until much later. I loved everything about you. I still do. _

_I love your smile and your laugh and your cute little blush when you get embarrassed. I love the way that you can light up a room with one smile. I love the feeling of you in my arms. I love the way that our bodies seem to fit together when I hold you. I love the feeling that I get when I look at you; my heart swells and I can't contain it. I love the way that you can bring out all sorts of emotions that I never thought that I could feel again just by one simple look at me._

_All I want for you to do is let me be there for you. Let me take care of you. You deserve someone to love you and to lead you through this life. I promise to do that for you. I promise to be there every step of the way. I promise to protect you from the world out there, even though you don't feel that you need a bodyguard. I promise to make everything right. I promise to fix everything that is wrong, I promise to be the one to wipe away your tears. I promise to be there for every laugh or smile or blush or tear that ever in your life._

_I love you so much Wanderer._

_Forever yours,_

_Ian."_

Ian stopped reading and kissed my head that I had buried into his chest, trying to hide the tears that were spilling over my eyelids.

"That was... I..."

I stopped stuttering when Ian placed a finger under my chin and lifted it up so that he was looking down at me. When our eyes met, I saw how vulnerable looking that Ian was; I could see right through those blue eyes that I loved so much and right down into his soul.

"There's something else," he said softly, reaching over to the table again. He held up another red piece of paper.

"This is a poem that my Mom left with me along with the instructions to read it to the woman that I loved the most. My Dad read it to her on the night that they first said that they loved each other. I know that we have already told each other that, but I think that it is time that I shared it with you; it explains everything that I feel when I'm around you."

"Read it to me," I said to him and he nodded, smiling and kissing my head again.

He swallowed hard before beginning to read.

"_I love you  
With every breath,  
With all I have left,  
From the deepest depths,  
Of my heart, I love you._

_With all of my strength,  
With ten miles' length,  
Every thought I think,  
I think that I love you._

_For the length of forever,  
As long as we're together,  
Through good and bad weather,  
For always, I love you._

_Until the very end of days,  
Until God takes my breath away,  
Until death separates our ways,  
Until then, I love you._

_When no one else is there,  
When you think no one cares,  
When love seems too rare,  
Remember, I love you._

_When everything's gone,  
When all has withdrawn,  
When hopelessness dawns,  
Don't forget, I love you._

_When you fall down,  
When your dreams come unwound,  
When hope can't be found,  
Be happy, I love you._

_When you make mistakes,  
When you're filled with hate,  
When you're old and gray,  
Even then, I'll love you."_

When he finished reading, I sat up straight in his lap so that our faces were on the same level, wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and pulled his lips down to mine. When they met, it was with a renewed passion that I knew had something to do with Ian just pouring his heart out to me. I could taste the salt from my tears and opened my eyes a crack to see that they were trailing down Ian's face as well.

I broke away from him and reached a hand up to wipe them from his cheeks, but he stopped me by taking my hand in his, kissing it, and then pressing our foreheads together. I closed my eyes, thinking about all that he had just revealed to me. I truly felt like I didn't deserve Ian's love; I did feel the exact same way about him, but I never went to any great lengths to prove that to him. I would have to think of something and do it another time. Right now, this was enough of an emotional roller coaster for the time being.

**Sunny POV**

"Kyle, what is this?" I half whispered to him, taking in the sight of all the roses in front of me.

He smiled at me, gesturing towards them before answering.

"All the cards have written on them the reasons why I love you Sunny, and all the things that you do to me when I'm around you. I'm crazy about you."

"But Kyle," I said. "I just... I don't understand."

He sighed and plucked a single rose out of the masses.

"I'm sorry, Sunny," he apologized and I turned to look at him. "I'm sorry for the way that I blew up at you like that, I had no reason to do it and it was horribly wrong." He took a deep breath, handing me the rose in his hands before continuing. "I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I'm not even asking you to consider it. I just want you to know that I am. I don't expect you to accept it or anything."

"You're wrong," I said to him, toying with the rose in my hands.

"What?"

"You did have a reason to get mad like that. I... I did exactly what you said. I used Jodi's body for my own personal gain and that was wrong. Somehow, deep down I knew that you would come back, but I just... I don't know how to explain it. I was living in isolation for so long. I could tell..." I broke off, shaking my head. He would not want to hear that.

"Tell me what?" Kyle asked, closing the space between us and delicately lifting my chin up to look at him.

I couldn't do it. He would lash out again, I knew it. Instead, I just shook my head and averted my eyes.

"Nothing, it's fine," I said, trying to reassure him while opening the little card attached to the stem.

"I love the way that your nose gets red as soon as you step outside into the cold," Kyle recited as I read the words off the card.

"How?" I asked him, looking up.

"I just knew which one it was," he replied simply.

"Did you now?" I said to him, raising an eyebrow playfully.

He nodded. "I know what's on the inside of all these cards."

"Really. How about.... that one." I pointed to one that was on the floor beside me and picked it up.

"Whenever you smile, it lights up my life," he recited and I shook my head, as it was indeed what was written on the card.

"I know them all, Sunny," he said to me, sitting down on the couch, moving a few flowers aside. "Ask me any of them, any single one."

I smiled and be beckoned me over. Slowly, I made my way through the roses and sat down beside him on the couch. Kyle put his arm around my shoulders and drew me closer. This was the first real body contact that we'd had with each other since that night and it felt nice to be close to him again.

"So mister, can you tell me what's on the inside of all of these?" I challenged him and he grinned, effectively accepting it.

"Of course I can. But I think that it's more fun if you read them."

I shook my head. "I want you to read them to me."

He nodded and began to read and after he said one about how my lips felt on his, I lost it and started crying. I tried to sit up to go run to the bathroom so that he didn't see me, but he was faster and wrapped both arms around my middle, holding me in place.

"Sunny what is it?" he asked, pulling me back gently as the tears rolled down my face.

"This is all for Jodi," I said to him and I could feel him freeze up.

"Why... ah... what?" he stuttered.

"I knew it." I turned to face him. "Kyle, I know that you want Jodi back, and I'm trying my hardest, but I... it's hard."

"What is it? Why would you think that this is all for Jodi?" he asked me softly and I wiped away some of my tears as more cascaded down my cheeks.

"Because of what some of them say. When you like my body up against yours, or the feel of your lips on mine, you're talking about Jodi! This is her physical body, not mine. As much as I would love for it to be mine, it never will be."

"Sunny," Kyle pulled me in and hugged me. "I can see why you would think that, but it's not true. As much as it pains me to admit it, Jodi isn't with you at the moment. She's not fighting back like Melanie was. You are the one controlling her bodily movements. It's _your_ lips that I'm pressing mine to."

As if to make a point, he kissed me gently before I turned my head.

"This is all very nice of you, but it's just going to make it all the harder when I have to go. You'll forget all about me and I'll be shipped off to another planet while you get to sit here and have a laugh with Jodi about the things that you made me believe."

"Sunny, no, it is not like that at all, I can promise you that."

He started fumbling around with the roses on the floor at his feet before taking one in his hands and giving it to me. Tentatively I took it from him, not really sure if I wanted to read what he had written on it. He nodded his head towards it encouragingly; he was not going to read this one to me, I was going to have to do it myself. I took a deep breath and began to read,

"_I love that you are the one in Jodi's body, Sunny. I love your quirkiness and your all around nature as a soul. I love that you have truly become a human as you have lived in Jodi's body. I couldn't have asked for a better soul to take care of her for me. Thank you. I love you."_

"Kyle, you're just going to regret that, I..." I pushed the flower towards him but he stopped me.

"I mean every word that I say, Sunny," he kissed my forehead before hugging me again.

**Kyle POV**

It hurt to think that Sunny would think that way, but I could understand her reserve. Since I had met her I had been pressuring her into finding Jodi so that I could get my precious girl back, but I really did love Sunny. It wasn't on the same level as like Ian and Wanda by any means, I wasn't about to pop the question any time soon, but I did love her. It would take awhile for me to warm up to Sunny and try attempt to recreate the love that I had felt for Jodi, but it was certainly a start. Mom and Dad would be proud of me, that's for sure.

I held Sunny for a little while until she had calmed down enough and then I tucked her back into my side, reading off the rest of the cards to her. I could see that she was enjoying it, and it was just a small token to try and beg for her forgiveness. I knew that nothing would be the same as it was before, but it was certainly a start.

Eventually, Sunny started to grow sleepy and I couldn't help but to smile as her head nodded back in her desperate efforts to stay awake. It reminded me of the times that Jodi used to do that and then get mad at me when I would suggest taking a nap or going to bed. I settled Sunny into my lap, turning her sideways and rested her head on my chest as we both fell asleep.

**Jared POV**

When I walked into that room, I thought that I had gotten the wrong room number or something. I grumbled something about how Mel was sleeping and I was pissed that she could even think of falling asleep on such an important night as this. I was not prepared for what I saw when I flicked on the lights.

Mel looks amazingly gorgeous in normal clothes, but when she was wearing the little see through get up, she looked too good for words to describe. I felt very protective of her and was extremely glad that she had pulled the blinds closed; no one else should get to see this, just me. I let out a low whistle that would have normally embarrassed me, but with such a beautiful girl perched on the bed, I was losing my head.

"Are you just going to stand there?" she demanded of me and I chuckled a little.

"I'm just admiring the view, love," I admitted, noting that my voice was a bit lower than normal; she just had that kind of effect on me.

_Shit," _I thought to myself. _"She's going to think you're a horny asshole now"_

Fortunately though, Mel seemed to enjoy my little comment and uncrossed her legs, making me nearly come undone. I bit my lip a little and I know that she saw it, asking me if I was coming.

"Sooner than you'd think," I replied stupidly, but confidently walking over to her and taking her hand to pull her up to my eye level. If I didn't, I would take her right then and there, and that's not how I wanted this to go.

I tried not to look down at the goddess in front of me. I wanted to cherish her and the time that we had together; as there wasn't much real alone time in the caves. I let my eyes rake over Mel's face and shoulders, not daring to look any lower than that. I would respect her and treat her like the woman that she is tonight. We would make love, not just be wild and crazy. I gently touched her lower lip, knowing that it would drive her crazy.

I heard her whisper my name and I knew she was anxious and I also knew that I would have to tell her what I had in mind for tonight.

"Be patient, Mel," I whispered, letting one piece of our bodies' touch, afraid that I would lose it if anything more was to happen. "I don't want this to be rushed."

I knew that she would take into consideration what I had just told her about what was to happen, but this was also Mel; she had a mind of her own when she wanted to, and clearly this was one of those times. I could feel her delicate fingertips playing with my shirt and I let her take the lead for a little bit, nodding and giving her permission to take it off.

She pulled my shirt up and over my head, throwing it away and I knew that I had to regain control or this plan of mine would spin out of control fast. I wasn't exactly expecting her to touch my chest like she did and I jumped a little, blaming it on the coldness of her fingers, when it was exactly the opposite. This girl would be my undoing. When she touched me, I felt the heat course through my veins down to the part of me that yearned for her the most, making it rise.

After I reassured her that it was okay, she began to take charge again and I knew that the timing of my intervention would have to be precise. Feeling her hands roam my chest and stomach down to my pants caused them to grow tighter and I was cursing the fact that I had chosen to wear jeans. She then hugged me close to her and I knew that she felt the effect that she had on me pushing into her. I needed to touch her, so I let my hands trail down her back to her thighs, giving them a squeeze; I knew that she would know what to do.

Sure enough, Mel gave a little jump and locked her legs around my torso, just like I wanted. Unfortunately, she was rubbing up against my most sensitive part at the moment and it was making things rather difficult and uncomfortable. She took my mind off the problem when she ran her fingers through my hair. It was my guilty pleasure and she took advantage of that, watching as I couldn't help but tilt my head back and let out a very low moan.

"You like that?" Mel teased and I nodded, looking at her. I knew that different emotions were filling my face and I had to act now to get this going where I wanted it to.

I brought my lips up to hers and tried to kiss her and make it last as long as possible. There was no need to rush. We had the whole room to ourselves for the entire night. I let my tongue sweep across her lips and couldn't help but to moan as it plunged into her mouth, deepening the kiss. Reluctantly, I pulled my face from hers, realizing that breathing was a necessity, but I didn't go far.

I relinquished my control and flipped us around, pushing her back into the wall, effectively rubbing up against her, making me throb. I ignored my pain, making this all about her and kissed my way down her neck, across her chest and back up. When her head fell back, I growled, feeling her breasts being pushed into my bare chest. I couldn't help but to push into her and rub again, making it clear of the effect that she had on me and that I wasn't going to last much longer. She didn't help matters much, by moving her hips around, grinding down on me. It felt good, but I couldn't let her do that to me in these jeans. I put a hand on either side of her hips and tried to still her actions.

"Please Mel, just let me do this. Let me lead you." I begged, trying to make this clear that I wanted to lead us, to take us over the edge and make love properly.

She sighed and nodded and I knew that I had won. I celebrated by attacking her delicious and swollen lips. She finally let me lead and I deepened it once again, plunging my tongue once again into her mouth and hers answered back just as strongly. They fought for a few seconds until she gave up and I tried very hard not to smirk. Once again, air became an issue and I removed my lips from hers. I could hear her ragged breaths matching mine as I lightly kissed all over her face. I had to mentally will myself not to go over the edge as I felt her hot breath in my ear.

I took her lips in mine once again and tried to make it last as long as possible, but I really needed to get things moving along if I didn't want to cause any more pain to my lower region that what I was already experiencing.

"Get my belt," I said to her, out of breath and she looked up at me for confirmation. I smiled, nodding and she got to work.

She pressed her lips to mine, grinning and eager to start moving along. Her hands came around from their perch on my back and she devilishly let them lightly trace over my abs all the way down to the front of my jeans, making them tighten involuntarily and also tightening my pants a great amount. I could feel her hands on the buckle, and it didn't seem to be opening, so she took her lips off of mine to look down at what she was doing, for which I was grateful for. I didn't want to get anything stuck while she was trying to multi task. I brought one of my legs up so that Mel was sitting on it and I balanced on one foot, chuckling at her predicament.

"Need help?" I asked and she stubbornly shook her head.

"I can do this," she replied, finally undoing the belt and taking it off of my pants, reaching for the button next.

"You don't have to do that," I said, not wanting to put her in an awkward situation, trying to get it off as well, but to my surprise and pleasure, she slapped my hand away when I tried to help.

With my pants undone, I had to regain control for the time being. I felt my zipper press against my hardness as she pulled it down and I cupped her behind with my hands, kissing her hard while moving us over to the bed. I was very careful to lower her down onto the bed so that she didn't rub up against anything. Once she was lying down, I stood up and removed my pants, freeing me up just a little bit.

"Now now, what are we to do?" I asked her cheekily, looking down at her amazing body. What she was wearing didn't cover up a whole lot, not that I was complaining by any means. "There is still too much clothing between us."

As my eyes milked in her appearance, she shifted slightly and I was able to memorize every curve and dip in her body, subconsciously biting the inside of my lip.

"I don't know, Mr. Howe. What do you propose that we do about it?" Mel was going to be my undoing, even though I knew that she was just teasing. She reached up and wrapped her small hands around my shoulders and pulled me down so that I had my knees on either side of her body, careful not to put too much of my weight on her.

"Well, I quite like it, so I'm going to try not to rip it off of you," I said truthfully, not able to believe that such words were actually coming out of my mouth.

Melanie let out a very adorable giggle as my fingers grasped the edges of her "top" and slowly slid it up her stomach. I knew that the anticipation would drive her crazy, but I was getting her back, so to prolong the experience I began kissing her soft stomach as I exposed more and more skin. I could feel her squirm under me and knew I was doing it right. Once the top was up and over her full, round breasts, I quickly took it off of her arms, throwing it over my shoulder somewhere and occupied myself with her soft mounds. I gave them each an equal amount of attention using both my hands and my lips until I decided to move things along; I knew that she was ready.

I stopped caressing Mel and let my hands trail their way down her sides to the sides of her curvy hips, stopping once I reached the small string of material holding the front and back of her thong together. To my surprise, I ended up grabbing them so hard that a ripping sound was heard from between us and Mel let out another cute giggle. I realized my mistake and couldn't help but to blush as I looked up at her to apologize.

"Sorry," I apologized, and as Mel's forgiveness, she didn't say anything, but used her actions to accept my apology by pulling me up to her lips again.

I pulled out the ripped garment from between us and I could feel her reaching down between us for the top of my boxers, wasting no time in grasping them and sliding them down as far as she could get them. I decided to help her out and straightened myself flat so that I could just kick them off of the end of the bed. Once they were gone, I pressed my entire self up against her and I knew that she could feel _all _of me, but she didn't make the move to get me inside of her like I thought she would. Instead, she just captured my lips in her again and kissed me with a new passion.

**Ian POV**

I had just spilled all of my deep dark secrets to Wanda and I couldn't have been happier. Now she finally understood what went on in my head with things concerning her. I really, truly did feel awful for the way that we argued earlier and wanted to make it up to her in the best ways possible. My Wanda deserved the best and I was determined to give it to her.

Wanda lay her head back down on my chest and I circled my arms around her; both of us were just content to sit there and not say anything. I kissed the top of her hair, smelling the sweet, floral scent that came from the new shampoo that she and Sunny had picked up the other day.

"Ian?" Wanda asked me, breaking the silence.

"Yes, love."

She was silent for a second, and I could almost bet that she was smiling; I knew that I had a goofy grin on my face after calling her that.

"Thank you," she managed to say once she regained herself.

"For what?"

"For everything," she replied simply. "I know that must have been hard for you to write that letter and then to share your parents' poem like that, and I'm really grateful. Thank you for feeling that you could trust me enough to share that with me."

"Wanda," I sighed, hugging her closer to me and kissing her head again. "I trust you with my life; of course I would share something like this with you. I love you."

She turned to look up at me. "I love you too."

I couldn't help but beam at hearing her say that to me. As Wanda sat up, I tucked a piece of her golden hair behind her small ear and wrapped my left hand around the back of her head, bringing it closer to kiss her forehead. Once I did that, she brought her face up and in a bold move, pressed her lips to mine. I wasn't totally expecting it, so I didn't react like I should have and as a result, Wanda broke her lips away from mine and looked down to the side, creating a veil of hair to hide behind.

"Don't hide," I said softly, reaching through her soft hair to push it back, grasping her chin between my thumb and first finger.

Once she was looking back up at me again, I smiled before bringing my lips down to hers again. I had initially intended on it being a short kiss, but once the fire started coursing through my veins like it always did when we kissed, I sort of forgot. Instead, I let my instincts take over and touched my tongue to her bottom lip, seeking an entrance that I hoped she would give.

Wanda didn't pull away at this like she sometimes did instead; she opened her mouth almost immediately, granting me access. Once our tongues touched, I felt her tip her head to the side, trying to get better access and in the process, she effectively deepened our kiss. Very reluctantly, I pulled my lips away from hers and Wanda's ragged breathing matched my own. I kissed her forehead again before kissing her nose, cheeks and eyelids. She opened her beautiful silver eyes and smiled one of her gorgeous smiles at me, and I hugged her close to me.

"Ian, I have a question," Wanda said to me, sitting up again in my lap, brushing her bangs out of her face.

"You can ask anything you want," I told her, placing a hand on her thigh waiting for her to ask.

"Do you really not like children?"

Wanda said it so quietly that I barely heard her, but I immediately began to shake my head in response to her inquiry.

"No, no I love children," I told her and saw a small frown crease her brow. I ran my thumb through it, trying to smooth it out. "Why would you think that I didn't?"

"Because... because of what you said earlier," she half whispered to me. "You basically implied that you didn't want them at all..."

I pressed my first finger to her lips to stop her so that I could explain.

"I didn't mean it like that at all."

"Then how did you mean it?"

I sighed. I knew that this would come up, and I guess that it was natural for her to want answers for it now, but I didn't think that it would be so soon.

"I meant it like this: the thought of you having to go up into that building in particular was unbearable for me because were we in that position, I would want to go in there with you. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that you would go through a pregnancy alone."

She seemed deep in concentration trying to process what I had just said and I brushed a piece of hair over her shoulder while waiting for some sort of response.

"Do you... do you want children?" she asked me.

"Do you?" I rebutted.

Wanda nodded ever so slightly and I couldn't help but let the smile creep up on my face.

"I do want them."

"I do too," I said to her, elated, but stopping myself short. "But... would you want them with me?" I asked her apprehensively, knowing that she could be talking about splitting herself up into millions of souls, not having a human baby.

"Of course, Ian. You're the only person that I would ever consider having children with," I could see her chewing at the inside of her lip and wondered what else there could be.

"What is it?"

"It's just... that hypothetically if you actually want to have children with me... they. They wouldn't look like _me_; they would look like Pet. No, they would look like this body," she corrected herself and I was appalled.

I pressed our foreheads together to respond to that.

"They would look very much like you," I said and she began to protest, but I quickly hushed her. "They would. This is what you look like in your human form, Wanda. In every way, you are this body, and don't try to deny it. If we created children, they would walk away looking like a combination of the two of us, and they would be beautiful. You know what?"

She shook her head and I could see her eyes glistening in the candle light.

"They wouldn't be nearly as beautiful as you are."

Wanda's face lit up, blushing a little as always before she wrapped her small arms around me, effectively crushing us together. I chuckled and protectively put my arms around her as well, resting my chin on the top of her head. I started tracing small circles on the bit of skin that was exposed on her back when her shirt rode up from stretching her arms out and I felt Wanda shudder before yawning.

"Are you getting tired?" I asked her quietly, knowing that she would refuse.

Right on cue, she began to shake her head back and forth and I chuckled.

"I just want to stay like this forever," Wanda said to me softly and I couldn't agree with her more.

"I do too," I admitted. "But I think that we might be a little more comfortable if we were in another spot. I'll tell you what. Let's just go and get into the bed and we can curl up together. We don't have to sleep, but it will be better than sitting in a hard chair."

"Sorry," she said to me, standing up and smiling.

"Don't be sorry, Wanda," I told her. "Don't ever be sorry."

She stood up off of my lap and held out a hand for me to take. I rose beside her and surprised Wanda by putting my arms behind her shoulders and behind her knees, effectively sweeping her off her feet and carrying her to the bed.

"Ian," she protested, but we were already there and she knew that it wasn't worth the fight.

Very gently, I placed Wanda on the bed and she surprised me yet again when she grabbed the collar of my shirt and brought my upper body back down to hers.

"Wanda, what...?" I started to say, trying to figure out why, but she cut me off.

"Shh Ian... please," she whispered and I looked right into her eyes, gauging her emotions before kissing her lips gently.

"I'm not a china doll," she grumbled and I couldn't help but to chuckle as I shifted my weight on top of her, placing my hands on either side of her head.

Wanda gave me a look and I burst out laughing before composing myself and kissing her. Our lips fused together and moulded as one and I could feel the fire in me slowly burning its way south. My body certainly had ideas as to where this might possibly go, but I couldn't let the testosterone take over me. I had to keep a level head and not push Wanda farther than she was willing to go.

As always, breathing was necessary and I pulled away, burying my head in her right shoulder and Wanda's small, warm lips kissed the side of my neck. The feeling was incredible and I didn't waste any time in taking a deep breath and kissing her again. Wanda's hands were toying with the bottom of my shirt and I could feel it creeping up, her soft hands sliding beneath the fabric and touching my skin. My stomach involuntarily clenched and I could feel her lips smiling under mine, so I took the opportunity while her mouth was open a bit to slide my tongue inside.

The result was her tongue fighting back against mine while her hands crept further and further up my chest. I sat up and discarded of my shirt, as the dangling material was bothering me.

"You okay?" she giggled before I attacked her lips.

I felt her small arms circle around me and her nails were digging into the muscles in my back, causing the heat to keep flowing in a southerly direction. I wrapped my own strong arms around her small middle and slowly pressed our upper bodies together. When our bodies touched, I could feel her chest rising and falling, and feel her heart beating rapidly and I grinned at the effect that I seemed to have on her; it matched the one that she had on me. Just as I was tightening my grip on her waist, a loud thump was heard from the wall by our heads. Wanda jumped beneath me and I tore my lips from hers, pulling her close and looking around for the source of the noise.

I smelled Wanda's floral shampoo as she buried her head in my shoulder and another loud thump was heard. I frowned and listened carefully for another sound and it was only a few seconds before I heard it again.

"What is it, Ian?" Wanda whispered in my ear. "It's not Seekers, is it?"

I listened again and noticed that they seemed almost rhythmic, almost like---.

"What a mood killer," I mumbled before looking down at her.

"No, Wanda," I said to her, tilting her head up and out of my shoulder to look at her. "It's not Seekers."

"Then what is it?" she asked, her beautiful eyes wide and fearful.

I smiled down at her fondly before brushing some of her bangs off of her forehead and kissing it. I then cupped her soft cheek with my right hand and brushed my thumb against it to calm her down, and it worked, she leaned into it and closed her eyes.

"It's just Mel and Jared," I explained without trying to make her feel uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, a frown creased her beautiful brow and I smoothed it out gently with my other hand.

"I don't understand," she admitted and I sighed.

"You know how they were so excited to get back to their room?" I tried to explain again and she nodded. "Well... they're... you know..."

I knew that there was a faint blush on my cheeks, but it was nothing compared to the flame that was burning on her cheeks. I knew she understood what I meant then and I couldn't help but to lean down and kiss her cheeks and then her forehead again.

"So, no Seekers?" she asked, smiling at me.

"No Seekers," I confirmed and she nodded before yawning again.

I sighed on the inside and rolled off of her, opting to lie down beside her instead. As I propped myself up, she wiggled her way up so that her head was on the pillow before she sighed. I looked up at her before moving to lie beside her. Wanda's eyes were fluttering closed before she would jerk them open again.

"You can go to sleep," I told her but she shook her head.

"Mmnot tired," she said, slurring her words a little and I chuckled.

"Wanda, it's okay," I told her and kissed her temple, noting that her eyes closed and didn't open again.

I propped my head up on my palm and rested my elbow on the bed beside her, watching as her breathing evened out and she was deep asleep. Wanda subconsciously rolled onto her side as the thumping continued and I shook my head, rolling my eyes. Thankfully, she didn't wake up, but just kept on sleeping. I decided to try and get some sleep, so I curled myself up behind her and wrapped my arm around her waist. While I was holding her, sleep came to me easily and I was able to fall asleep, despite the noises coming from the other side of the wall.

**Mel POV**

Jared was lying on top of me and I was very aware of every bit of him that was touching me, yet I made no move to connect us together. Instead, I kissed him roughly, and he answered back just as eagerly. I grinned and he kissed me again as I reached down between us and took him in my hands. I saw a silly grin on his face and began to run my hands up and down his length, noting that he broke his lips from mine and let his head fall back in pleasure. I was elated that after all this time I could still make him feel good.

"Harder," he whispered into my ear, his hot breath blowing in my ear.

I grinned and obliged to his request, gripping harder and moving faster. I brought him right to the edge before stopping and smiling evilly.

"No," he groaned and I watched him for a second before the guilt washed over me and I finished him off.

He kissed me again and I moved my hands over the sheets, rubbing my legs back and forth against each other, becoming frustrated. Helping Jared like I did made my center hot and uncomfortable and a large part of me wanted to take care of the situation myself, but I resisted. Jared very sweetly brushed his knuckles down the side of my face, trailing it lower and lower as they brushed down my chest and stomach, down to the part of me that yearned for him the most.

His fingers brushed my lips before plunging inside of me, making my hips buck up. I moaned out before he clamped his mouth down on mine and kissed me like he never had before. His fingers twisted and turned and then he brought his thumb up to play with my little bundle of nerves and I lost it. It certainly didn't take much, but I was seeing stars from it for awhile. Jared and I kept kissing, neither of us wanting to break away and end this sensuous kiss of ours.

When we did come up for air, he looked down at me and I knew that look in his eyes, he was ready and wanted to make sure that I was too. I smiled up and him and nodded, kissing him quickly on the lips. He grinned and kissed me back before reaching off the side of the bed and grabbing something out of the bag on the floor.

While he ripped open a package, I stretched out; reaching up and over my head and I heard my shoulders pop in the process. I knew that my chest was being pushed up towards the ceiling and when I opened my eyes, I saw that Jared was looking down at me and there was something very evident in his eyes that I couldn't put my finger on.

"You're gorgeous," he said to me, running his hands down my sides, making me shudder and sending a wave of heat down to my core.

I rolled my eyes and giggled in response as he kissed me lightly and hovered above me, positioning my hips in the right spot below him. He looked back up at me and nodded a little, letting me know that it was time and I couldn't do anything but smile at him. Very gently, he lowered himself down towards me and I nearly came undone in anticipation. It had been awhile since we had been together and I almost wanted to just push him, but I knew that he wanted to do this his way, so I let him slowly come down to join our hips together.

When he entered me and we joined as one, it was everything that I had remembered and more. I let Jared lead and he was evidently determined to make this about love, not about being together once again and he was very slow and cautious, making it so that we could feel every movement from each other. Not very long after, we had both taken the plunge over the cliff together and he peppered my face, neck and chest with light, feathery kisses.

We stayed joined as one unit, neither one of us daring to move and let this moment between us pass us by. Jared's ragged breathing matched my own and he brought his face down beside mine, kissing my cheek right beside my earlobe.

"Have I ever told you that I love you?" he asked and I giggled.

"I think I may have heard it somewhere," I replied and I could feel him smile.

"I love you," he whispered.

"And I love you," I said back as he pressed his lips to mine.

Much to my dismay, Jared pushed himself off of me and rolled away. I lay there and blew out a breath, sort of sad that this night was ending. I sat up and noticed that Jared's shirt was lying on the floor beside the bed. I stretched my arms up again before bending over to retrieve it from the floor and made to put it on, but Jared wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back to him instead. I could feel his insistent prodding on my lower back and smiled.

"Someone's ready," I commented and he moved my hair over one shoulder, kissing the base of my neck.

"Not before I do this," he replied, cryptically, letting go of me.

I shivered from the loss of body heat and turned to see where he had gone, gasping as I saw where he was.

Jared had climbed off the side of the bed and was a little ways away on the floor, down on one knee. I scooted over so that I was sitting on the side with my legs dangling off of it and he held his hand out for mine. I bit my lip and gave it to him as he began to speak.

"Mel, I know that we haven't known each other for a terribly long time like some couples, but I love you more than I could ever imagine. The first time that I saw you in that house and I crushed my lips to yours, I knew that you would be a permanent fixture in my life,"

I began to get the gist of where this was going and my eyes welled up with tears.

"I know now, as I always have known, that I can't live without you, Mel. You are the glue that holds me together and without you, my world shatters into a million pieces. I want the world to know of our love for each other, and for them to see that there is meaning to life amid these gray times that we live in,"

"Melanie Stryder, I promise to love and to cherish and to honour you for the rest of our lives. I promise to always be there and to treat you the best way that I know how. I want to grow old with you and only you by my side. Will you marry me?"

In his free hand he held a small white box that contained a ring inside it with a considerable diamond on it. I looked between the ring and Jared's worried and anxious face a few times before I could feel a smile growing on my face. I didn't think that I could form coherent words, so I just nodded my head profusely.

"Will you?" he asked again, clearly looking for an oral acceptance and I could feel the tears overflowing down my cheeks.

"Yes, Jared, I will marry you. Yes, yes yes," I repeated several times and he jumped up, pulling me to stand beside him.

Jared wrapped his arms around my torso and spun me in several circles before putting me back down and giving me a quick kiss. He then showed me the box, opened it taking out the ring and slid it on my finger where it would stay for the rest of our lives.

I bit my lip as more tears spilled down my face and he gently wiped some of them away. I looked down at where it sat on my hand and stared in awe.

"Is it too much?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No it's not... it's just... are you sure that you want me? The rest of our lives is a pretty long time..."

Jared interrupted me by pressing his lips to mine and I could feel them curving up into a big goofy grin.

"Of course, my beautiful fiancé! I want you for the rest of forever!"

I smiled at his enthusiasm and wrapped my arms around him before looking up and giving him a playful smack on the arm.

"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing the spot lightly.

"That was for proposing to me when we were completely naked," I told him. "How are we supposed to tell the grandkids the story of how you proposed?"

His face paled at the mention of grandkids and I giggled.

"Jared, relax, I was only joking with you. We don't have to..."

"But I want children, Mel. I was just thinking that it would be a beautiful thing to be able to sit with them and tell them about when we were young and stuff."

I smiled. Sometimes he really was gentle and caring. I decided that now was not the time for that kind of Jared.

"Now," I started, backing away and placing my hands firmly on my hips. "I believe that we were about to continue with something before you decided to take a little detour."

Jared bit his lip and tackled me back down to the bed, much rougher than before. We had a reason to celebrate, and celebrate we did.

**So, Ian was wonderful, yes? Hehe. I love him.  
A special thanks is in order to one of my good friends that helped me out with Ian's bit. The poem is called "I Love You" by Kandyce N. Summers and I found it over at .  
This one was awesome with everyone's POV. I loved experimenting and delving inside each character's mind. : )**

**So did anyone hear about the whole Dakota Fanning/Jane/New Moon thing? I'm not so sure about it. When I heard about it, it just added to my frustration/anger levels from today. *sighs*  
Review! : )**

**P.S. Sorry for all the complaining! Just ignore me... :P **

**P.P.S. I will be writing the next chapter of I'm Right Here before anything else as it has been seriously neglected.**


	17. Preview

**A/N: *Ducks to avoid rotten tomatoes***

**OKAY! This is not a chapter, I realize this, yes but I just feel HORRIBLE for not updating in several lightyears. Or at least it sure feels that way. There's just been a whole slew of things that have gone on, ranging from intense skating and not enough sleep to fires. *sighs* Hasn't been the best time. **

**I actually have the majority of this next chapter done, but it's like 15bazillion words so I'm splitting it up. This week I have some things due in to school as well, but I am hoping /hoping/ to update THIS COMING WEEK. That means by next Sunday, April 5, 2009. You have my permission to egg my house, should I be a minute late past that deadline. Then, I will post the second chapter the week after.**

**This is a sneak peek from the next chapter because I feel horrible.**

"We're about five minutes away," Jared reported. "Everyone know their job?"

A chorus of groans followed his little speech; we had been over the protocol for this particular raid at least a hundred times every night.

"What if we decided not to go out," Ian said softly to me, moving a piece of hair out of my face.

"I think that Jared would kill us," I replied honestly and he snorted.

"He wouldn't dare; he'd have to face the wrath of Mel after and I personally would not want to put up with that."

I giggled and snuggled closer to him.

"But seriously, I don't want to let you go from my arms right now, I feel like I haven't been able to spend enough time with you on this raid."

"Ian, look at it this way: sure, we haven't exactly been together a lot, but once we get back to the caves, we'll be given those few days to recuperate and we can do this all you'd like," I told him and looked up; he seemed to be contemplating it with a little smile on his face. I couldn't resist stretching up and kissing the corner of his smile, it was just too tempting.

**On another note, happy Earth Hour day! :) I hope that everyone participates!  
And I apologize a hundred times. Promise by Sunday April 5, 2009. Promise.**


	18. Getting There

**A/N: I'm so terribly sorry about the lack of updates!!! I feel horrible! But alas, don't worry my friends as I have the majority of the next chapter finished, so I'll be updating later this week sometime. And on the bright side, there's only two more weeks of school left and then exam week, so I'll be able to update without having school get in the way! : )**

**Extra special thanks to everyone that has reviewed: Portland Writer, shouvley, Vanessa-Wolfe303, sarah12345, mediate89, Twilght101101, TwiHard09, WhiteCamellia, hanaharoo, xScribbles819, Anaeli, TopKat90, EdwardAlways, MunchyChips, vampire's kisses 4 me, TK-MR, vanilfrappe, 23, CeraG, SillyIsabella, dwrigt, NaMaDRI, LadyMalfoyx, lalakid667, InLuvWithFictionalCharacters, BriarRose024, SimplyLeah, ASHLEYYYBLACKBERRYYY, HOLLYZ, Leah-The Writer, Kady4 and Harleygreen!**

**Mel POV**

The next morning as we were loading up the van and climbing in our respective cars, I couldn't seem to keep my eyes off of Jared. I knew that I had a stupid grin on my face and I couldn't wipe it off-not that I tried to. We hadn't told anyone else yet; we were going to do that today. Nobody even knew that Jared was even thinking about proposing. As I climbed into the driver's seat of the car and Wanda got in beside me, I chanced a glance at the ring that took up residence on my finger.

Jared had really out done himself. It was quite large, and probably not something that I would have picked out on my own, but I loved it all the same. It had three diamonds in total, two smaller ones on either side of a massive one in the middle. They were set on a white gold band and sparked every which way I turned my hand. I couldn't get enough of that sparkle.

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the way that he proposed to me though, naked in a hotel room wasn't exactly the way that I had pictured that it would happen when I was a little girl. I decided to let it go as I backed out of the spot at the hotel, pulling out behind the boys in the van and driving behind them. I was happy and I was going to spend the rest of my life with Jared, and it didn't really matter how he proposed, it was the fact that we were going to be together was what really mattered.

I looked to my right and saw that Wanda had her head resting against the seat and was fighting to keep her eyes open and I couldn't help but to giggle.

"Wanda, you can sleep, you know," I told her and she jerked awake, shaking her head in refusal.

"No, no I'm good," she said, sitting upright and smiling at me.

I made a right hand turn and I guessed that my left hand went over top of the steering wheel and I heard Wanda gasp. I turned to her, frowning, as I wasn't sure what exactly she was gasping at.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands.

"What?" Sunny and I asked at the same time, looking at her funny.

"Don't 'what' me," she replied, reaching across my lap to take my left hand in hers. "Look Sunny!"

She held my hand up and Sunny literally stopped breathing. I couldn't help but to smile and giggle at the pair of them as they oohed and aahed over the ring, Wanda practically ripping my arm off in the process.

"So how did he do it?" Sunny asked and I looked in the rear view mirror.

"How did who do what?" I asked and Wanda snorted.

"Don't give us that," she reprimanded me. "How did Jared propose?"

"Well, he... I..." I didn't exactly know what to say, as we hadn't come up with a good cover story or anything. "Well, it was last night, and you know. He got down on one knee and said a bunch of sweet and loving words and asked me and obviously I said yes."

They seemed content with that answer until Wanda gave me a look, raising her eyebrows.

"No, how did he actually do it," she said to me, obviously seeing through my little made up story and I sighed.

"Well, it was sort of like that, I suppose," I started, eventually breaking down and telling them the whole story, not leaving anything out.

**Jared POV**

I hopped into the truck and threw it into reverse, getting out of there as fast as I could, briefly looking around to make sure that Ian at least had his seatbelt on before speeding away. I looked in my rear view mirror just to make sure that Mel was keeping up behind me before settling into a respectable speed.

"Dude, where's the fire?" Kyle asked, popping up in between Ian and I, sitting on the floor.

"There's no fire," I replied shortly and out of the corner of my eye I could see them share a significant glance.

"Right. Now tell us what's really the matter?" Ian said.

"Nothing is the matter," I sighed before deciding to actually tell them. "Everything is perfect, actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Just spit it out!" they both spoke at the same time and I couldn't help but to laugh.

"Well, last night I sort of... well," I ran a hand through my hair. "I asked Melanie to marry me and she agreed."

There was a moment of silence following that and while they processed this information and I was oddly nervous.

"You... you did what?" Kyle finally choked out.

"You heard me. I asked her to marry me. I love her with all of my heart, soul, everything so it was only natural for me to do it eventually. And I'm just so happy that I asked her and that she said yes. I just... God I love her so much," I felt like I had to explain to them and when I looked over I saw that they were both smiling at me, which had to be a good thing.

"I know the reason why you did it and I'm proud of you," Ian said to me. "It takes real guts to do a thing like that."

"Thanks, Ian," I told him and he clapped my shoulder.

For whatever reason, I felt oddly calmer now that I had told Ian and Kyle and that they had sort of in a stupid, twisted kind of way they had given me their blessing. I blew out a sigh of relief and turned back to my driving and the task at hand. Today was the last day that we would be getting supplies on this raid; after this stop it was smooth sailing right through to the caves. The last one always made me a bit nervous, as I wanted things to go off without a hitch, but now that I had gotten the proposal out of the way, I felt a lot better about this. Today was going to be a good day.

**Ian POV**

_"Jared had done what?"_ I asked myself immediately after he had told us that he had proposed to Mel. I internally cursed while I was giving him my praise.

_I_ was supposed to be the first one to do it; I was the one who had gone and started planning it already. Kyle would take years before he ever got to that point with his relationship with Sunny, and I supposed that I only took them into consideration when I first came up with the idea.

But Mel and Jared..... I shook my head a little. I didn't even think of them. I guess I was just so caught up in the idea of them as a couple and being reunited and everything that I didn't even think that it was a possibility.

Now I knew that I would have to make it extra special when I did it to Wanda. I didn't want her to think that I was asking her simply because Jared asked Mel. No, I had to make sure that my feelings came across as genuine love for her; the soul inside the body, and that I have wanted to make her mine since I first fell for her when she was in Mel's body. I sat in deep thought while Jared and Kyle chattered on about something of little importance to me.

"Ian. Ian!" Kyle's voice brought me out of my mind and back to the present time.

"What?" I grumbled. Leave it to him to want to say something when I had other things on my mind.

"Today's the last day of the raid, eh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Did you figure that out all on your own?"

"Shut up," he told me as Jared shook his head at our banter.

"Though when we get back to the cave; that's it for Wanda and I," I remembered and Jared opened his mouth to protest. "Don't you even start," I told him. "You promised Wanda, Jamie and I. You can't go back on that. The kid already has trust issues with you, you can't break this promise."

"I know," he said. "But I thought that we agreed that it was the last one in awhile for Wanda, not for you."

Kyle snorted from behind us and I resisted the urge to hit him.

"Face it Jared, if Wanda's not going out, neither am I, and I'm not arguing with you on it either. I will help you to plan it and then you can go and get it done fine without me."

Jared snorted. "This conversation is not over Ian..."

"Yes Jared, yes it is," I interrupted him. "Mel wouldn't let you go out on your own without a fight if she was the one staying behind."

"Yes she would," Jared said, but I shook his head.

"Really?"

He sat quiet for a second, just staring out at the endless road ahead of him.

"Alright, point taken, but this still isn't over."

Uh, guys?" Kyle said.

"What?" Jared and I both snapped at the same time.

"The girls need gas."

I frowned. "What did you say?"

"The girls.... they need gas," he said and I turned to see him pointing back at the car, where Mel was sticking her hand out the window carelessly, making it look like she was letting it float in the wind, which was our sign for a gas run.

"Okay okay we're getting off," Jared sighed and signalled for the next exit.

We slowly made our way off the freeway and Jared navigated us into the nearest gas station; that was conveniently only a few blocks away; ideal if we had to make a quick getaway or something. We pulled to a stop in one of the parking spaces to the side of the main building and the girls pulled up to a pump.

I yearned to go and hold Wanda in this brief time that we weren't on the road, but I couldn't risk getting out of the car. To my relief, Sunny was the one that got out of the car to pump the gas. As she stepped out, she put the sunglasses that Mel had made us all get on and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"She looks good," Jared commented and Kyle nodded, his stupid face practically pressed up on the glass in the back window as he made sure that she was okay.

I looked in my side view mirror and saw Wanda sitting in the front seat, looking absently out the window. I wanted desperately to know what she was thinking about. A few moments later, after Sunny had finished pumping the gas and went inside, returning with snacks, she made her way over to the van and Jared rolled down the window.

"Hey Sunny, what's up?" he called out to her once she was close enough.

"Nothing much," she replied, passing a few cold drinks through to Jared, who tossed them in my direction. "Congratulations, by the way!"

Jared laughed a little. "Yeah, thank you."

"You must be so happy," she commented and he nodded and _blushed_. Jared actually blushed. Apparently I wasn't the only one who saw it though.

"Awwww Jared blushed!" Kyle said in a high pitched voice, sitting in between our seats and pinching Jared's already red cheeks.

As a result; and anyone that knew Jared could have seen this coming, he punched Kyle really hard in the shoulder.

"You're an idiot," I told him, shaking my head.

"Anyways Sunny, do you know where we're headed?" Jared asked, getting down to business.

"I think so? Mel said something about a St. Joseph's.... is that right?"

"Yeah, she's right. We've been there before, but not for a long time, so we need to pay them a little visit," Kyle said, winking at her and she giggled, blushing a little bit. Personally it made me a bit sick to see him flirting like that, but I swallowed the bile building up at the thought and smiled all the same.

"Okay, well she sent me over to tell you that quote 'she doesn't know where she's going, so you had better know or so help you' end quote," Sunny recited and we all laughed at that.

"Tell her that I do indeed know where I'm going and that she shouldn't worry; I'm not going to get her lost or anything. So I don't need help from anyone," he replied and she nodded.

"I will make sure that I do that," she said before waving and walking back to the car.

Jared rolled up the window and started the van, reversing out of the spot and we waited a little bit for Sunny to get in and for Mel to start up the car. She did and we all heard the squealing of tires as she peeled away from the curb, stopping abruptly behind us, revving the engine. My heart nearly stopped at the small amount of distance between the front of their car and the back of our van. Another half a foot and my precious Wanda would have been squishing Kyle's body back there.

"That's my Mel," Jared said, turning back onto the road and searching for the on ramp for the freeway. "Always living life on the edge."

"Yeah well she'd better watch it," I said to him once my heart slowed to its normal pace. "If anything happens to my Wanda, it'll be all her fault."

"Yeah," Kyle piped up from the way back. "If Sunny gets hurt, she better own up to it."

"Shut up you two," Jared barked, speeding up as we neared the freeway. "My Melanie wouldn't hurt a fly," he said and I snorted, which earned me a whack from him.

"Trust me though Ian, she wouldn't let anything happen to Wanda. First of all, because it would kill her to lose a sister and also, nobody would want to face your wrath after something like that," he continued and I made a face.

"Can we please not talk about it?" I pleaded and he nodded, turning up his music loud and sang along as the voice of Rihanna came through the speakers.

I seriously couldn't imagine what I would do if anything were to happen to my Wanda; I doubted that I would have the will to live any longer though.

**Tracker POV**

"The two cars are getting off the highway," Sky reported from the passenger seat, where he was looking ahead through a pair of binoculars.

"Thank you for that, but I can see with my own eyes, you know," I replied, signalling to get off and cutting off a car as I made my lane change, resulting in the blast of a horn.

"Yeah, yeah," I said to the car.

"Sorry Red Fires," Sky said to me and I rolled my eyes.

I noticed the car make a right hand turn and moved over a lane, making sure that I was two cars behind them, also making the turn to follow them. They pulled into a gas station; the van stopping on the other side of the store while the car pulled up to the pumps.

"Do you have everything up and ready?" I asked Sky, who turned to me and nodded, holding up a small device.

"Good," I said, pulling into the little plaza parking lot beside the gas station and Sky turned on this listening device so that we could hear everything they said.

They began to talk about small little trivial and uninteresting things while the shorter brunette girl pumped gas into the car. The boys mentioned the name "Sunny" a few times, so I guessed that was her name.

"Sky have they even noticed the tracking device on the van yet?" I asked him, picking up the binoculars and adjusting them so that I could see straight into the car, where another brunette and a blonde were still sitting in it.

"No sir, they haven't even inspected the van. You would think that since they seem to have a lot of experience with this sort of thing that they would check for them regularly," he mused, turning up the volume as the boys had grown quieter.

"Not necessarily, Sky," I said to him, looking through to the van now, watching as the brunette came out of the store and walked over to it. "They have got so long without incident that they're slacking in terms of security and that sort of thing. They're more concerned with someone seeing their eyes and scars than something that might be sticking to the side of their van."

"That makes sense," Sky replied and I could tell he was going to say something else, but I quickly hushed him.

"Listen," I whispered, looking down at the machine in his hands.

"_Anyways Sunny, do you know where we're headed?" _A deep voice said, and it seemed to be from the man who was sitting in the driver's seat of the van.

_"I think so? Mel said something about a St. Joseph's.... is that right?" _the girl's voice said as she peered in through the window. Sky and I exchanged a significant glance at that: we had a heading now.

_"Yeah, she's right. We've been there before, but not for a long time, so we need to pay them a little visit," _another voice chimed in, and it was from one of the other two men in the van.

_"Okay, well she sent me over to tell you that quote 'she doesn't know where she's going, so you had better know or so help you' end quote," _the Sunny girl said, which made all of the boys in the van laugh, for whatever reason.

_"Tell her that I do indeed know where I'm going and that she shouldn't worry; I'm not going to get her lost or anything. So I don't need help from anyone," _the one in the driver's seat told her and she nodded. He appeared to be the leader of this little mission that they had.

_"I will make sure that I do that," _the girl said before waving and walking back to the car that was still sitting at the pumps.

I sat there with my mouth open for a few seconds, before recovering from this new bit of information and looking over at Sky, who seemed to be as dumbfounded as I was.

"Do you know what this means?" I asked him and he nodded.

"We've got a heading, and by the sounds of it they'll be there today," he replied, watching as the two cars left the gas station and headed towards the freeway once again.

"Sky, you drive, I've got an important phone call to make," I instructed him and he immediately leapt out of the car, practically running over to the driver's side while I just shimmied over the center console.

Once we were in and settled, he reversed out of the spot, throwing the car into drive and speeding away from the plaza. My hands were shaking as I opened the glove compartment and pulled out the walkie phone that was in there and only to be used when we were going to have them cornered. I held it in my hands for a few seconds before turning it on and scanning through the contacts; there was only one for 'dispatch'. I pressed the button with my thumb and held it tentatively to my ear until a male voice answered.

_"Dispatch."_

"Sir," I said into the phone. "We've got them."

Silence ensued for a couple of seconds.

_"I... really?"_

"Yes," I replied, my voice becoming stronger. "St. Joseph's hospital, today. We're going to need back up."

**Wanda POV**

I was really nervous as we started to get closer to the destination for the last raid on this trip. All I desperately wanted was to get in and out as fast as we could so that we could get back to the caves in record time. I knew that this was just a standard raid and that nothing was going to go wrong, but I had this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I closed my eyes and didn't even realize that I had drifted off to sleep until I felt someone shaking me lightly and calling my name. I jerked them open again to see my door wide open and Sunny standing beside me with her hand on my shoulder and a big smile on my face.

"Wake up sleepyhead, we're here," she said to me and my heart sped up. Where was Ian?

Melanie must have seen me look frantically around for him because she laughed and rolled her eyes while stepping out from behind Sunny.

"We're only at the spot where we're going to dump the car," she explained, nodding over towards the van that was parked two spaces over from us. "Come on, the boys have unloaded some of the stuff from the van into the car and they're waiting for us."

I shook my head and stood up, stretching as soon as my feet hit the pavement. Sunny closed my door and Mel locked it, the three of us heading over towards the van with our arms linked together. The back door flew open to reveal Kyle and Ian's smiling faces. They must have been contagious, because soon enough one was plastered on my face as well.

Ian reached out towards us and I placed my hand in his as I stepped up and into the van. Once I was inside, he wrapped one of his strong arms around me and pulled me closer, so that I ended up sitting in between his legs. I felt the safest in this spot and smiled over at Kyle and Sunny across from us on the floor as Ian rested his chin on my shoulder.

"Ian, are you sure this is comfortable?" I asked him, ready to move no matter what his answer might have been.

"Wanda, I'm fine," he assured me, kissing my hair while securing his arms around my waist. "I like it when you're here; I get to be possessive and hold you all to myself."

I giggled at his little comment and Pet's body blushed, though I was pretty sure that if I had my own body I would have done the same thing, as Jared pulled the van out of the spot and onto the road towards our final destination.

"Are you sure Ian? I can move if you want..."

Before I could even finish that sentence, Ian clamped a hand over my mouth, effectively silencing me. I frowned and playfully bit his finger. He jumped a little before chuckling and bent down so I could feel his hot breath tickling my ear.

"You know, if I didn't love you so much I would have yelled at you or something for that," he whispered and I turned my head towards him to see if he was serious or not. Ian's face was pulled tight into a poker face, but I could see the shimmer in his eyes that told me he was joking.

"Aw, did you want me to kiss it better then?" I offered, pouting a little bit and playing along with him.

"Yes I would Wanda."

He held out the appendage and I grabbed a hold of it, bringing it towards my face and giving it a soft kiss.

"I don't think that did it, I can still feel it hurting," he said and I giggled before kissing it again.

"Nope, try it one more time."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing as I kissed it a third time and he exclaimed that it was cured.

"Get a room," Kyle snorted from directly across from us.

"Shut it Kyle, and mind your own business," Ian snapped at him.

"I would, but you two are being awfully distracting. Plus, there's nothing to look at," he retorted and I turned my head away from them to save myself from further embarrassment.

"Wanda, just ignore them," Ian whispered into my ear. "They're just jealous because they don't have the kind of love that we do, they feel the need to take pointers from the best of us" he continued and I swatted his leg, while trying very hard not to giggle. Ian didn't say anything to me about hitting him, so it mustn't have hurt him. Instead, he kissed my head again and I allowed myself to lean back into his strong embrace and close my eyes.

"We're about five minutes away," Jared reported. "Everyone know their job?"

A chorus of groans followed his little speech; we had been over the protocol for this particular raid at least a hundred times every night.

"What if we decided not to go out," Ian said softly to me, moving a piece of hair out of my face.

"I think that Jared would kill us," I replied honestly and he snorted.

"He wouldn't dare; he'd have to face the wrath of Mel after and I personally would not want to put up with that."

I giggled and snuggled closer to him.

"But seriously, I don't want to let you go from my arms right now, I feel like I haven't been able to spend enough time with you on this raid."

"Ian, look at it this way: sure, we haven't exactly been together a lot, but once we get back to the caves, we'll be given those few days to recuperate and we can do this all you'd like," I told him and looked up; he seemed to be contemplating it with a little smile on his face. I couldn't resist stretching up and kissing the corner of his smile, it was just too tempting.

We stayed cuddling together for the last few moments until I felt the van turn to the right as Mel and Jared stopped talking; we were obviously here. Ian must have known it as well, because I felt his arms tighten considerably around me.

"Ian, it will be okay," I whispered to him and he moved me around in his lap so that I was sitting sideways, crushed to his chest.

"I know Wanda, I know," he said, almost to himself before kissing my head.

I stroked his arm with my fingers in a pitiful attempt to calm him down; he was exceptionally nervous about this raid. The van stopped moving then, Mel and Jared jumped out immediately and I saw Sunny climbing through the seats to the driver's seat. She was going to drive around until we were finished as Kyle didn't want her inside the building for this.

"Come on, Wanda," Ian said to me and I stood up, crouching because of the low ceiling and the back doors flew open. Jared helped me out and I turned around to grab one of the bags that Ian was handing out. We would fill them with stuff once we got to it.

Ian jumped out and slammed the door shut, banging on the back of it. Sunny put the van into drive and the five of us turned to face the building that seemed to loom in front of us.

"Ready?" Jared asked us.

"No, but I guess that doesn't matter, does it?" Ian answered, looking sideways at me and reaching over to hold my hand in his. I attempted to smile back at him before taking a step forwards and leading the group.

I led them to stand behind a large dumpster outside of one of the back exits, looking around the corner to see if the coast was clear.

"It's good," I said to them in a low voice and Jared strode out from behind to lead Mel and Kyle towards the door. I started to follow, but Ian's hand jerked me back and I turned to face him.

"What is i—" I began to ask, but was quickly cut off when Ian's hands cupped my face and he pressed his lips to mine.

"Ian," I started to protest, but he kissed me harder and I couldn't help but to give in. My limbs had turned to jelly as we kissed and Ian seemed to sense this, as he moved one of his arms to wrap around my waist and hold me to him. As we broke apart, he pressed his forehead to mine and pushed a few stray pieces of hair out of my eyes.

"I love you," he said and his breath washed over my face.

I smiled and replied, "I love you too Ian, so much."

He pressed his lips to mine in a chaste kiss before taking my hand and stepping away. I sighed because our little moment was over and we had to return to reality now. Ian chuckled, looking at my face and stepped out from behind the dumpster. Together we ran hand in hand towards the building and the rest of our friends.

We found them huddled against the wall while Jared peered around the corner again.

"Took you long enough," Mel said, smirking and I blushed, hiding behind Ian a little bit. "I'm only teasing you," she said and I shrugged, though she didn't see it.

"Okay, they've been carting the boxes of Heal inside and I've caught snippets of their conversation," Jared reported, turning to us again. "They're piling it in a huge storage place along with the Cool, Awake and other stuff. Alls we need to do is figure out where it is and we've hit the jackpot."

"That shouldn't be too hard," I said simply from behind Ian and everyone turned to look at me as Ian stepped out of the way. I took a breath before explaining. "Souls like to be very organized. I bet that if we go inside those doors that we'll find signs or a directory or something that would be of great help to us."

"Would they have any sort of special entrance or something?" Kyle asked. "You know, like an eye-reader to get into the room that only allows certain employees to get in there?"

"No," I answered. "Souls are trusting creatures, remember? Everybody would be allowed in that room no matter what. There wouldn't be any reason for security or something because theoretically there aren't any souls left on Earth to be afraid of."

Everyone nodded, seeming to believe my answer and Jared turned to look out again. Ian gave my hand alight squeeze and when I looked up at him, he smiled at me.

**Tracker POV**

We got to the hospital as quickly as we could. As Sky parked the car, I flew inside to the front desk.

"Excuse me, m'am I need to meet with your head of security," I told her and she looked quite startled. "Is the director around somewhere too? I'll need to speak with them as well."

"Excuse me?" the girl asked me. "What exactly is so urgent that you need to speak with them? If you wanted, I could leave a message—"

"No, no," I said to her as Sky came running inside. "This is a matter of security for our whole world, Stardust," I said, looking at her nametag. "It is imperative that I speak with them right now."

"I...erm..." the poor girl looked around for a way to fix this without notifying the people that I needed and at any other time I would have pitied her, but this was an emergency.

"Look, Stardust, I have my badge here if that will speed things up a bit," I reached inside my jacket and took out my badge, showing it to her. Immediately her eyes widened and she picked up the phone to speak with the necessary people.

"They are waiting for you up in Suite 2237," she told me and I was halfway to the elevators by the time she was done.

"Thank you," I heard Sky telling her as it dinged and the doors opened. I pressed the button for the right floor.

"Have we got them?" Sky asked, breaking the silence.

"They're not here yet," I said to him. "We've got them," I finally answered, smiling at him. He returned the grin as the doors opened and we practically ran down the halls to the right suite.

I opened the door without knocking and saw two Souls waiting for me in there. Sky followed and closed the door as I got to work immediately explaining the situation.

Twenty minutes later, Sky and I were sitting in the old security offices surrounded by television screens showing every part of the hospital, ready to catch them. The cameras had to be booted up as they hadn't been used in years and we weren't sure if they would work, but they pulled through. The head of security, Claws of Glass was sitting on my left, scanning all of the televisions for anything out of sorts while the director of the hospital, Drops of Water, was pacing back and forth behind us. Even I was a little anxious for this, but I knew that back up was only a few miles away and the 'rebels' wouldn't be here for at least another ten or fifteen minutes. Sky and I had speeded the whole way over here to make sure we had enough time.

Roughly eight minutes after, the back-up arrived and I sent Sky out to direct them to a place where they wouldn't be seen. At minute twelve, the familiar black van pulled into the lot.

"There they are," I said quietly and pointed to the third screen on my right. The director stopped pacing and immediately sat on Sky's vacant chair and started at the screen.

"Are you sure?" Claws of Glass asked me and I nodded.

We watched in silence as five people climbed out of the van before it drove away. They all ran towards the building, but out of the camera view. I frantically searched all of the other screens, but couldn't see them at all.

"Where are they?" I asked under my breath and another minute later I saw three of them run closer to the building and flattened their bodies up against it.

"Did we lose them?" Drops of Water asked in a slightly panicked voice and I shook my head, silently pointing to a screen directly in front of me at the very top.

"No, but there's only three instead of five—oh, there they are," Claws of Glass said as the other boy and girl cam running into view. "Here, have a listen," he said, handing me a set of headphones that I slipped over my ears. I could hear all of their voices loud and clear, as if they were standing directly beside me.

_"They're piling it in a huge storage place along with the Cool, Awake and other stuff. Alls we need to do is figure out where it is and we've hit the jackpot."_

_"That shouldn't be too hard,"_

"Do you have a large storage facility around here?" I asked and Drops of Water immediately nodded his head. "That's where they're headed," I announced, sliding the headphones down and off my ears so they were hanging around my neck.

"What do they want there?" he asked nervously and I shrugged.

"I didn't hear that part," I admitted and Claws of Glass stood up.

"Where are you going?" I asked him as he turned to the door.

"To the storage room, we'll intercept them there and be done with it," he answered simply and I shook my head.

"No, we have to wait until they've let their guard down a little bit. Let's wait until they've already gotten in there. That way they'll be cornered and we'll have them for sure." Dispatch had told me to catch them off guard and only engage back-up if we absolutely needed it, but I was pretty confident that we could take them out pretty quickly.

I turned my attention back to the screen and saw that they had slipped inside the building and were heading along a corridor.

"They're in," I said to myself and paid attention closely for the right time to intervene; they wouldn't be getting out of here alive.

**I'm even early!!!! : )  
I promise to never ever do that again. Promise. And I hope that I haven't lost any readers because of it.  
Review! : )**


	19. Trouble Ahead

**A/N: Here's the next chapter for you! I'll make it short, because I'm late again.... I apologize.**

**Thanks to Vanessa-Wolfe303, shouvley, HOLLYZ, sarah12345, xscribbles819, hearts-4-stars, lalkid667, Kady4, TK-MR, MissyAnn7448, EdwardAlways, WandaCullenBelikovOShea, 23, brokenfromthepast and EdwardIsMySoulmate for your awesome reviews!! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

Kyle entered the building first, Jared and Mel quickly followed. Ian had grabbed my hand and we were about to go through the doors when I noticed that he seemed very tense.

"Are you okay?" I asked him and he nodded shortly as we stepped across the threshold.

"Alright, I saw them take a left once they got in the doors," Jared reported, not even pausing before he started off in that direction.

They stopped every few feet or so and Jared took the opportunity to step up as our "leader", looking around the corner and telling us that the coast was clear.

"Jared, I think we're okay," I told him. "There shouldn't be anyone in here anyways; it's night time and we just watched them bring in the last of the delivery, no Soul would still be here."

He seemed to think about that before Mel pushed him from behind and he had no choice but to step out into the hall. After a few wrong turns, we had to go back the way that we came from and I noticed a sign that lead down to the store room. Rolling my eyes, I tugged Ian along with me. At first I felt a bit of resistance, but I simply pointed up at the sign and that was enough to convince him to come along with me.

"Sorry I doubted you, Wanda," he whispered in my ear and I just nodded.

About thirty steps later; Kyle was counting out loud, we arrived at the door to the store room.

"Wanda, don't you think it's weird that we didn't encounter another Soul on the way down here? I mean, we did get kind of lost and all," Mel said tentatively, but I shook my head. "I mean, isn't there like security or something?"

I turned around to face the group and saw that they were all looking at me with the same 'deer-in-the-headlights' look.

"You guys, they haven't used those cameras," I pointed at the one in the corner above the door for effect. "Since the last of the humans were rounded up, or at least what they thought was the last of them. There's no need to use them."

"I guess that would make sense, but..." Jared started to say, but I interrupted.

"But what? Jared, can't this wait? I'd like to get going so that we can get out of here and back to safety, how about the rest of you?"

There was a murmur of agreement and I turned around back to the door, looking for a way to open it.

"Man, this is going to take forever, we'll never get in," Kyle grumbled and I heard the distinct sound of him slumping against the wall, nearly admitting defeat.

"Will you just have some trust in Wanda?" Ian asked and silence followed his question. "I mean, she _does_ know more than we do after all and...."

He stopped speaking because I had put my hand on the door tentatively and found that it simply pushed open to the inside. I began to step inside, when my hand was abruptly pulled back.

"Let me go in first," Ian insisted, but I shook my head.

"Ian, it's fine."

"Just, please? Give me peace of mind."

I sighed and took a step back; that wasn't exactly fair, but I had to let him do it, for argument's sake. Ian kissed the back of my hand before dropping it and smiling at me as he stepped through the doors, looking around.

"Okay, it's good," Ian said, holding the door open wide and reaching his hand out for mine. I smiled and took it again as he swiftly pulled me through the door, the others followed quickly.

It took our eyes a few seconds to become adjusted to the dark once the door shut before Jared flicked on the lights.

"Thanks Jared," I said and Ian laughed, shaking his head.

"Even in the most dangerous situations, you still find a way to thank someone?" he said to me and I shrugged.

"Why not?"

He didn't answer, but just wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kiss my head.

"Why are you all just standing around?" Kyle asked while he walked over to a pile of boxes and bent over to look at the label. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

I could have sworn I heard him say '_I need to get back to Sunny'_, but I wasn't too sure about that one. Ian led me over to a pile stacked in the corner and got down to see them.

"Here's a pile of Heal, we need these," I said, even though he already knew that. I piled three on top of each other and bent down to pick them up, but Ian stopped me.

"No way. Just take one, I'll get the rest," he told me, lifting the box off the top and I began to protest.

"Ian, I can do it myself!" I told him and he shook his head.

"Alright then," he shrugged his shoulders and put the box back on the top. I smiled at him, tilting my head to the side before bending down and putting my hands on either side of the bottom box. I crouched and tried to lift the boxes, struggling to stand up. I grunted and sighed, giving up and crossing my arms.

"Okay, you win," I said to him, defeated and looking up at him. I could see that Ian was biting his lip quite hard, trying not to laugh. "It's alright; you can laugh all you want."

"Wanda," he said, opening his arms up to me, but I shook my head. "Come here." He took a few steps closer and wrapped his arms around me. "I'm not going to laugh at you, ever Wanda. I love you too much to do that."

I leaned up and kissed his cheek, blushing at his words.

"I love you too Ian," I whispered back to him.

"Come on you two we don't have time for this mushy stuff you know," Kyle called out to us and I looked over my shoulder at him. He had already filled one knapsack with Cool and was working on another.

"Sorry," I apologized before letting go of Ian to step away from him.

As always, he was a step ahead of me and before I realized, he held my face in both of his hands, leaned in and kissed my lips. I tried to pull away, as I knew that others were watching, but his hold remained firm as he tried to deepen the kiss. I smiled into it and let myself go, moving my lips against his as he increased the pressure quickly.

"Mn... Ian," I said, breaking away from him to catch my breath. "We... we have to get going."

"You're right," he said to me with a little smirk on his face and his eyes twinkling. "We'll have plenty of time for that once we get back to the caves."

I stood there with my mouth gaping, and a blush on my face as Ian winked at me before Jared tossed him two knapsacks to fill.

**Sunny POV**

I was parked in the back of the parking lot where it was the darkest so that there was no chance of being seen. If I was noticed, I would simply just fake not knowing where I was and get the help if they offered it, drive away and come back for the rest of them.

As I sat there, I worried about Kyle. I didn't know if he was safe or not or what was going on. I just knew that the person that I loved the most, who probably didn't love me the way I loved him, no matter what kind of romantic gestures that he made, was inside the building. I didn't know if he would come out alive or anything and that really worried me. Now I knew how Mel felt when Jared went out without her.

I looked at the clock; 8:35pm.

I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. I knew that there was a reason that I never came out on these raids, I didn't realize how stressful these were. Being on the other side of the resistance gave me a new perspective on life and how much these humans had to suffer because of us.

These humans were certainly an interesting species, as they were the only ones that had ever rebelled against us. Still, I found them very intriguing and yearned to be a part of them. If there was a way for me to switch species and become a human, I would gladly take the chance.

I looked at the clock again; 8:36pm.

It was going to be a long night.

**Tracker POV**

"Haven't we waited long enough? We could intervene now," Drops of Water suggested, with a hand on the door.

"No, not yet," I said to him and he shook his head.

"If not yet, then when?" I could tell that he was getting agitated, and I couldn't blame him. Tensions were running high in the room.

"We wait for them to leave the room before we move in on them. We want them to think that they're in the clear," I answered simply.

"Are you sure that's the best way?" Sky asked me and I nodded.

"Course I'm sure."

We all stayed in that little room for another twenty minutes before the door to the storage room opened again.

"Do we move yet?" Drops of Water asked, ready to bolt.

"Let's go, we'll be able to time it so that they're directly in the hallways so we can trap them."

I stood up and grabbed my badge off the table that I had been spinning in my hands. Sky opened the door and we all ran through it.

"Wait!"Claws of Glass called out to us and we all stopped. "I'll pull the alarm, you guys keep going."

"Well, technically I have to be there when you do it," I told him and he nodded, waving us down another hallway and through a locked door. Once we were inside, he ran immediately over to the other side and threw open a panel, slamming his palm down on a red button. Almost instantly, a shrill alarm was heard in the halls and red flashing lights popped down from the ceiling, flashing at the same time.

"Let's go!" I yelled out and lead them all running down the hall towards the humans. We'd get them for sure.

**Mel POV**

I finished filling my two bags and looked over at everyone else. Jared was trying to stuff a fourth box into his bags, while Kyle kept anxiously looking over to the door, ready to run at any second. Ian and Wanda were working on their own bags and I could see that he was trying to steal kisses from her at any and every chance that he got.

I looked down at my ring again and smiled. Even in this low lighting, it was sparkling like no other. I couldn't wait for this raid to be over with so that I could get back to the caves and start planning this wedding. It would be small, that was for sure; just the people in the caves, and we could have it in the main plaza during the day. I just needed something simple in these times. Had we still been living in our past life, I knew that my wedding would be a grand affair, but it couldn't be, given the circumstances.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when two strong arms circled around my middle.

"Guess who?" someone's deep voice said to me, though it was distorted as he was trying to hide his identity.

"Jared," I said simply, turning around.

"How did you know?" he asked, with an adorable little frown on his face.

"I'm not that dumb, you know," I told him. "I knew it was you by your smell."

"Thanks, Mel. I did shower this morning, you know," he joked and kissed my head.

"I know," I giggled. "But you still have your own distinct 'Jared' smell. I could pick it out of a crowd blindfolded, if I had to."

"I'll be holding you to that, you know," he said and I stood up on my tip toes, leaning in to him.

"I know that you will," I whispered, just before our lips met.

"Hey you two, are you ready to go or what?" Kyle called out from us, and Jared reluctantly broke away.

I sighed and stood back on my feet as Jared yelled back at him for interrupting. I bent down and picked up the two bags I was responsible for, slinging one on my back and holding the second in my hands while Jared collected his.

"Let's go!" Kyle called out to Ian and Wanda, who were standing and holding each other tight. Wanda noticed that we were looking at them and she turned a cute shade of red.

Jared took my hand and we lead the way out of the room, Kyle following us. As we passed Ian and Wanda, I could see that he was trying to take the bags from her again and as usual, she was protesting. Once we were outside of the room, I turned around and saw that Ian had all four of their bags slung in various places all over his body and I couldn't help but to giggle at them.

"You know, Wanda _can_ carry her own bags, Ian," I said to him and she nodded.

"Thank you, Mel. That's what I was _trying_ to tell him," she said looking at him and crossing her arms. Ian just smiled and leaned over to kiss her head.

"Shh!" Kyle shushed us all and waved us forwards in the direction that we had come from.

We all travelled in silence, back to the door. I held onto Jared's hand like a vice as we walked, getting more excited as we travelled closer to the door, as beyond that held our freedom. As soon as we were out of the building, the raid was essentially over; it was straight driving back to the car, and then to the hideout. We would be home by sunrise.

Kyle turned the corner and said door was within sight. I gave Jared's hand a squeeze, and seconds later a high-pitched sound was heard through the building. Clapping my hands over my ears, I looked around and saw that everyone else was blocking them as well, in various stages of turning to look at Wanda.

Her eyes were extremely wide, and I barely recognized the red lights that were now flashing all around us. Time seemed to stand still and I stared at her, looking for some sort of clue as to what to do next. It was not comforting at all when her eyes began to water and she bit her lip.

**Sunny POV**

Something was wrong.

I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with Kyle and the others. I tried to tell myself to calm down, but I couldn't seem to manage that. Instead, I started up the van and pulled out of the spot that I was sitting in, slowly making my way back over to the medical building.

As I got closer, I could see souls filing out of the main exit, looking around. Over the rumble of the engine, I heard an alarm and my head skipped about ten beats. I sped up a little bit towards the door where I had dropped everyone off, praying that they would all come out of that door.

**Wanda POV**

As soon as the alarm started to go off, I knew that those other Souls were coming, and I knew what I had to do. I had planned this for a long time, should the occasion ever have come up, and I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to go through with said plan. I couldn't let them capture Ian, Kyle, Jared and Mel though. I had to take one for the team.

_'Ian, please forgive me for what I'm about to do'_ I silently prayed before opening my mouth, aware that everyone was looking at me expectantly.

"Wanda!" Ian called out to me frantically, reaching out a hand for me to take. Instead of doing so, I shook my head and did the thing that I wanted to do the least.

"Ian, I can't."

It seemed as though time froze in the instant after those three words left my lips.

"What?" his voice cracked like a whip and I bit my lip to hold in the tears. I knew that I would hurt him with my next sentence, and I wished that there was some other way around this, but it was the only way to save him and the others.

"Ian I can't go with you. I belong here, with them."

Desperation and panic became clear in his eyes.

"What? No, no you don't, you belong in the caves and with me, now come on!"

He held out his hand, taking a step closer, but I knew him well, and knew that he would try to do that, so I took a large step away from him, towards the direction that I knew the Souls would be coming in.

"Ian, give me your pill," I instructed him, holding out my hand now.

"Wanda, let's just go..."

"Ian," I pleaded and he nodded his head, digging it out of his pocket and trying to hand it to me. I didn't grab it, instead letting it hit the floor where I stepped on it and ground it up.

"Wanda, we don't have much time!" Ian said to me and I saw the others come up behind him. It was now or never.

"Ian I can't go with you back to the caves. I've been waiting to go back home. I... it's Pet, it's not Wanda. I got rid of her; she hasn't been speaking to you for weeks now. I miss my mother and my family. I can't go on living a lie. I need to go back home. If you respect me like you should, you will let me go. She's long gone, Ian."

His eyes got really wide then and he shook his head, not believing me. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"No... it's Wanda, I know it is..."

"Ian," I began again, trying to sway him. "Wanda is gone. I am Pet, and I wasn't fully taken out when you all did the surgery. I've been patiently biding my time until I could get back close to my home and my kind and leave. Just let me go back home. Get out of here, there's no need for you to be caught, I've grown attached to you all, and I don't want to see you hurt."

"But, Wanda?" he tried asking and I shook my head, my heart breaking into a million pieces in the process.

"Wanda is gone," I repeated, dying on the inside with every word that I spoke. "She may have loved you, but I can't. I mean, you're a _human_ after all."

I heard footsteps quickly coming towards us.

"Go," I said, just above a whisper and bit my lip again while stepping away.

That seemed to do the trick as Jared immediately stepped forward, grabbing Ian and tossing him over his shoulder before walking away. I looked to Mel and saw that she was standing in the same spot, her mouth wide open in disbelief, hands still clapped over her ears. I looked away as Kyle took her and chanced one more look at Ian. I tried to convey my grief and apologize to him in that single look, but I don't know if he caught it. I didn't stop looking in that direction even after he and Jared had turned the corner and the other Souls had descended upon me.

**Ian POV**

_'No. No. This can't be happening, NO!'_

I kept repeating that like a mantra when I heard those horrible words come out of Wanda's mouth. They couldn't have been true, could they? Could she really do that to me, after all I have given her? I didn't have time to contemplate that, as I felt someone grabbing a hold of the back of my shirt. I tried to stand my ground, but the figure, probably Jared, picked my useless body up and flung me over his shoulder.

Over his back, I caught one final glimpse of Wanda's shocked and pleading face before the other Souls descended upon her.

_'Pleading?' _I thought. _'Why would she look that way?'_

I knew that people were yelling around me, and possibly at me, but nothing penetrated my hearing. I was essentially in my own bubble of destruction. Jared threw me, not so nicely into the back of the van, and I crawled to a corner so I could be as far away from the others as possible. I sat on the floor and was quiet, as I couldn't bear to say anything to anyone. I internally screamed just like the tires on the van as they peeled away from the building and the woman that I thought loved me.

**Jared POV**

Alarms were going off everywhere and there were flashing red lights spinning around as well as I grabbed the back of Ian's shirt, seeing that he seemed to crumple at Wanda's words to him. I didn't have time to ponder the possibility of their truth, as we had to get out of there. Our lives would be cut awfully short if we didn't move at this second, there was no telling what these Souls would do if they found four humans wandering around the property.

I grabbed Ian around the middle and threw him over my shoulder, turning to run back the way that we had come. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Kyle was dragging Mel behind him, running towards the exit and I was glad that she would be getting out of here alive. I ran as fast as I could, getting around the side of the building just as Sunny screeched to a halt. I threw the back door open and heaved Ian inside before turning around and taking Mel out of Kyle's arms and jumping in myself. Kyle was the last to get in, slamming the doors closed and yelling for Sunny to step on it. She did and we pulled away from the curb, tires squealing in the process as we sped away from the building and from Wanda.

**Kyle POV**

I honestly couldn't believe the words that had just come out of Wanda's mouth. Could she actually mean it? Before I could even reply, I noticed that Jared had thrown Ian over his shoulder and was starting to run towards the exit. I looked around and saw Mel standing rooted to the spot, mouth gaping open and reaching out towards Wanda.

I took a hold of her free hand and turned her around, starting to drag her behind me, until I realized that if I continued to do so, we would both be caught, so I prayed quickly that Jared wouldn't kill me for what I was about to do and I wrapped my arms around her waist, picking her up and running towards the van that had stopped. I saw Jared standing by the open doors with his arms out for Mel and I quickly passed her off, letting them get in first, looking around before I climbed in after them and slammed the doors.

"Sunny, drive away!" I yelled out, making my way to the front to sit beside her.

"What? What happened—" she started to talk, but I just drowned out her questions.

"Sunny, just step on it and get us out of here!" I practically bellowed and she nodded before pushing her foot down hard on the gas pedal and we peeled away from the building and from the soul that we thought that we knew.

**I won't be updating until late next week. This week is crazy, as it's exam week and the Ice Show for my figure skating club (which I'm skating in) is this week. Actually, it starts tomorrow : |**

**Oh! And I forgot to mention that I did post a picture of Melanie's engagement ring on my profile. And has anyone seen those Host skateboards on SM's website? I want one!!**

**Review! : )**


	20. Aftermath

**A/N: I'm so sorry to leave you with a little cliffy like that, so without further ado....**

**Also, thanks to shouvley, Bisa, brokenfromthepast, hearts-4-stars, mlindsey7, TopKat90, ASHLEYYYBLACKBERRYY, WandaCullenBelikovOShea, sarah12345, EdwardIsMySoulmate, vanilfrappe, hanaharoo, xScribbles819, EdwardAlways, Anaeli, Harleygreen, HOLLYZ, InLuvWithFictionalCharacters, pwrmom2, mangos, LadyMalfoyx, IanandWandaOshea4, PeetaMellarkLove and piccolover22 for your awesome reviews! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Ian POV**

Numb. That's all I was; I felt completely numb. I didn't feel or hear or see anything around me. I knew that I was still sitting in a dark corner of the van away from everyone else, but that was about it.

How could she have done that to me?

Could it have really been Pet inside that body all along? Was it even possible that Wanda never came back after the insertion?

No. It couldn't have been. Wanda had said that it was impossible once the soul was out for any part of it to stay there. And we _checked_. We absolutely made sure that nothing was left in the body before we put Wanda back in. It killed me to see Wanda, the love of my life, contained in that cryotank for days while we left the body to see if there were any remnants of the soul in there. All I could do for her during that time was hold on to that stupid tank. And for what? It's not like it worked.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and put my head down on them. I still felt horrible for leaving... what did I even call her now if Wanda was really gone? _It._ I felt horrible for leaving It there, although It clearly wanted to get home or something. I was stupid. Now It would probably tell the Seekers where we were and everything would be ruined and our bodies would be taken over by those _souls_.

A part of me; a large part, wanted to desperately believe that Wanda wasn't in there for the sake of the body that had clearly been taken by the souls; I didn't want her to have to deal with them and what they were possibly going to do to it. I would never want my Wanda to have to endure anything that those souls might have coming her way, nor did I want to dwell on the matter too much. For that reason, I wanted to believe what 'Pet' had said, and that reason only.

I took this opportunity to ponder the truth behind the last words that It muttered. Could they mean anything? I sighed. I guess that something bad was bound to happen; something like this.

I closed my eyes and fought off the pain and waves of nausea that were threatening to take over my body. I tried to hold everything in until I was alone, but pain was inevitable. My chest felt like it was being ripped apart into several hundred pieces. I had lost Wanda; the only person that I truly loved and cared for very much on this planet, and I wasn't going to get her back.

**Jared POV**

Once the van pulled away from the hospital doors, I quickly looked around the van to assess the situation. Sunny was driving along with a frantic look on her face. It was clear that nobody had told her what had happened yet, and she was freaking out accordingly.

Kyle was holding one of Sunny's hands with an almost vice-like grip. He only had eyes for her, and kept blinking hard, squeezing his eyes tight before opening them to look directly at her again; as if he was making sure that she was still there. He looked relatively calm, considering the circumstances.

Ian, on the other hand, was a mess; completely understandable in a situation like this, I don't think that anybody really knew what to think. He was sitting as far away from us as he could get, curled up in a tight ball. I couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through his head at the moment; well, I guess I could sympathize with him to a certain extent, but I had never seen Mel actually leave me like that. All I knew was that if Mel had done that to me again, I would have surrendered myself to those souls. But then again, we hadn't given Ian much choice in the matter; I had just sort of grabbed him and ran.

Speaking of Mel, I looked to my left and saw her sitting with her arms wrapped around her torso, silent tears streaming down her face. I sighed and felt my heart break a little at her crumpled state, so I slowly crawled over to her. She tried to turn her back to me, probably to hide the fact that she was crying, but I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Jared," she spluttered through her tears, but I gently tugged on her shoulder anyways.

"Jared stop," she said a little louder this time. I knew that she was on the verge of a breakdown, so I scooted a little closer to her.

"Jared!" she practically yelled. "Leave me alone!"

I took that as my cue to step right in. Without hesitating, I wrapped both arms around her tight and as I expected, she began to thrash around, trying to resist me. She turned abruptly to face me and began to hit my chest in anger.

"Jared! Let. Me. Go. I don't need your help. How could she do that?" Her musings began to take a different direction then, and she continued to hit my chest with every work that she spoke; but I barely felt a thing.

"Ja-red! I'm serious! Let go! I don't need help! I'm fine! We need to go get her! How could we have just... just..."

She gave up fighting against me then and collapsed into sobs. I yearned to have the ability to take away all of her pan and the guilt that she was obviously feeling as well. I knew that this was virtually impossible, so I settled for wrapping my arms tight around her. I gently guided her head down onto my shoulder and could almost immediately feel her tears soaking through my shirt.

Gently, I lifted her up off the ground as I leaned my back against the side of the van. I carefully tried to place her on my lap, but still ended up jostling her a little bit.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to her, but that only made her cry harder; the opposite effect of what I was looking for.

"Shh, Melly, please don't cry. I'm sorry if I hurt you," I tried pleading with her, but she shook her head.

"It's not your fault that she left us," she sniffed and wrapped her arms tight around me; an action which I quickly reciprocated.

"How could she do that?" she asked, her voice breaking on the last word.

I sighed and buried my head in her hair while I tried to think of an answer that wasn't too harsh.

"I guess that she just wasn't the soul that we thought she was," I finally responded.

Clearly, that was the wrong thing to say, as she gasped and pulled away from me to glare into my eyes.

"Jared Howe, how _dare_ you? Wanda is a wonderful person, and my sister to boot! And here you are speaking like this about her, when she... she..."

Mel dissolved into tears again and her body thumped back against my chest. Internally, I cursed this soul Wanda or Pet or whoever it was that got rid of the person that Mel cared about so much. This is exactly why they should have been killed. I knew that we should have gotten rid of her in the beginning when 'Wanda' had first come to us, no matter the circumstances.

I didn't realize that I had voiced my thoughts out loud until I noticed that Melanie's body had once again been ripped away from me. I looked around frantically for her and met her eyes. I immediately felt horribly guilty for the pain and sadness that was clearly evident in them.

"Mel..."

"Don't Jared. How could you even say that? Or even _think_ it for that matter?" her voice broke several times as she whisper-yelled at me.

"I... I didn't think that I had said it out loud," I tried to convince her of that, as it was a truth, but I was clearly fighting a losing battle.

"I don't are, you still thought about it. You still had evil, sick and corrupted thoughts running through your head."

"I. What?! My thought were none of those things! I don't know what you're going on about."

I looked over at her and saw new tears glistening in her eyes, threatening to fall. I regretted whatever I had said to upset her, as there was a lot to choose from, and wanted to take it all back; anything to get rid of those tears.

"Did it ever occur to you that if you had killed Wanda in the beginning like you had wanted to, you would have killed me?"

My stomach dropped down to my feet at the realization of how my words had affected her.

"No, Melly..."

"Don't 'Melly' me Jared. You should _really_ think about whether you want me alive or not before we go through with this marriage," she whispered before putting her head down and succumbing to the tears.

I sighed before speaking again.

"Of course I thought about that, you know that I did, and that's exactly the reason why I didn't kill her. You. Wanda. It. Whatever. I wanted _you_ with me, it was just Wanda I was unsure of," I tried to reason with her.

_"And clearly I was right about Wanda though,"_ I thought to myself, but kept it in my head this time.

"I didn't kill you two because I loved you, Mel. I couldn't do it," I continued, kind of happy with my answer.

"Loved? Does that mean that you don't now?" Mel picked up her head and looked up at me doe-eyed. Evidently I couldn't open my mouth without saying anything to upset her anymore.

"Of course not! I still love you and I always will. I don't know why you would ever doubt me."

As I spoke softly to her, I reached up to cup her cheeks in my hands, rubbing my calloused thumbs over them. I loved to touch her soft cheeks and Mel leaned into my hands. I seriously hoped that all was forgiven between us.

"I kept her alive so that I could have you," I said gently and she frowned.

"No, you kept her alive so that she could help you out with raids and 'soul' still. I know, I was there," she countered.

"That, and everyone would have beaten me to a pulp if I had actually gone through with it. Especially after I had come back from that raid."

The corners of her mouth twitched and I could see a faint smile on her lips, trying to break through.

"I'm glad that you decided not to kill us," she whispered and I nodded.

"I couldn't agree more. I got you back in my life, didn't i?"

"And you made Ian and Wanda happy," she said.

At the mention of Ian's name, we both looked over at his huddled figure. He was barely visible in the dark night and hadn't said a word since we had left 'Wanda'.

"I feel like we should be doing something for him," Mel whispered but I didn't respond; I simply wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

"He'll be fine," I tried to assure her. "He needs this time to himself though. He needs time to grieve."

Those last few words seemed to hang in the air as silence filled the van once again. Nobody dared to say anything, but Mel slowly began to detach herself from my grasp, which I fought against, of course.

"Mel."

"I want to help him," she said simply and I shook my head, but she managed to find a weak spot in me at that second, as she was free from my arms and making her way over towards Ian before I knew it. She reached him and gently placed a hand on his arm, which appeared to make Ian snap out of whatever he was in.

"Get away from me," he hissed, teeth clenched as he turned away from her. I started to make my way over as well in case things got out of hand.

"Ian, I just want to he—"

"I don't need help, get away from me," he said, his voice sounding very dark and menacing as he wrenched his arm away from her grasp. His sudden movement was unexpected by Mel and she went tumbling towards the floor as a result of it.

"Hey!" I said loudly, but he didn't bother turning around. "Ian, it's one thing to be angry, but it's another thing to take it out on my fiancé!"

"Jared, please," Mel started to beg me, but I was wired now.

"Mel, not now," I told her and tried to get in front of her to Ian.

"Jared, stop. Do you really want to fight with him? He's broken and everything. Now is not the best time to pick a fight," she pleaded, but I didn't listen.

"No. He tried to hurt you, and that's not okay with me. I don't care how hurt he is right now. I get that he feels bad; hell, I know what that's like, but I still didn't try to hurt anyone."

"He didn't......"

She kept arguing with me, but I tuned it all out the second that Ian turned his head in my direction. His blue eyes that usually sparkled and were full of life were flat and dull. The depth of pain that was in them was absolutely shocking to me. It looked like a part of him had just died. After seeing that, I couldn't do it. I scooted back into my original position and held my Melly in my lap, resting my head on her shoulder. Ian turned his head away and it was like nothing had ever happened.

To say I was shocked by his eyes was an understatement; I couldn't fully comprehend the message behind them, but I knew enough to back off and leave him be. I hugged Mel closer to me and kissed the back of her head, thankful that she was with me.

**Mel POV**

I seriously didn't know what the hell was wrong with Jared. One minute he was jumping down Ian's throat for no apparent reason, and the next e was back to normal, cuddling with me in the corner. It hurt my brain to even try and think about it. I sighed and leaned back into him, trying to relax; though it was nearly impossible.

All I could think about was going back and getting Wanda. I knew it was her, not this 'Pet' person that she said she was. I knew better. Her lie might have fooled the others, but I refused to believe it; if I did, then I would have to give in to the fact that my sister was gone, and I was not okay with that.

Of course I was upset about all of this, but since everyone else had basically given up and shred of hope for her being on this planet, I couldn't exactly try to convince them otherwise. Except maybe Sunny, as I didn't think that anyone had told her what had happened yet. Not that I blamed them either. I certainly wasn't going to risk getting eaten alive by Ian for trying to do so.

I looked over again and saw that he hadn't moved much since Jared's little encounter with him. I wanted so badly to try and comfort him; after all, he had just suffered probably the biggest heartbreak of his life. He needed to open up to us; he couldn't live like this, he needed help. I would be there for him, I decided, whenever he decided to break out of this state of mind that he was in.

I lifted my left hand to brush a piece of hair out of my eyes and the ring on my finger sparkled as we passed under a streetlight. My stomach dropped to my feet at the sight of it and I quickly glanced at Ian as another beam of light illuminated him for a brief second. I remembered what Ian's plans for him and Wanda were, and I felt guilty as hell for wearing my ring around him; it was almost like a sin. I gently and discreetly started twirling it around, slowly taking it off. Once I had taken it off completely, I began to play with it, nearly dropping it down into my lap. I jumped in the process and Jared noticed.

"Mel, what are you doing?"

"I'm...a.... I was just taking my ring off for a second, letting my finger air out, you know." It was a stupid excuse, and it didn't surprise me when he believed it.

"Mel, that rind belongs on the finger that I placed it on. I don't want you losing it. It's a proclamation to the world of my love for you," he said and I tried very hard not to smile and his words.

I felt a pair of eyes on us and looked over to see that it was Ian. He was looking in my direction with an indescribable emotion on his face. Just as I started to examine his expression, he turned away again. No doubt Jared's little speech had evoked some sort of emotion in him, and it made my guilt increase tenfold, unbeknownst to Jared. I sighed as I felt Jared's hands on mine.

"Let me put that back on," he suggested and I nodded.

Jared's fingers took the ring from mine as I looked down to watch. Gently, he took a hold of my left hand and slid the ring onto the third finger perfectly, without even looking. He then removed his right hand from mine to sweep the hair off of the back of my neck before he pressed his lips to it. I shuddered involuntarily and felt his lips curve up into a smile on my neck.

I quickly turned my head to the side and back a little, intending on kissing his cheek, but at the last second he turned so I got his lips. What was meant as a simple chaste kiss turned into something more as I felt his hand on my neck, his thumb brushing my cheek. He tried to kiss me deeper and normally I would have gone for it, but I felt slightly guilty doing it in front of Ian. I reluctantly pulled away and rested my head back on his chest.

"What is it?" Jared asked me, but I shook my head.

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing, you can't try and convince me of that," he was trying to pick a fight or something, I was sure because of the fact that he backed off on Ian, so now he had to redeem himself.

"Look, Jared. I just don't want to do this here. Let's wait until we're back in the caves or something."

"Why are you so reserved all of a sudden?"

I sighed before even attempting to answer that question.

"I just want to, okay? Please?" It was a feeble answer, but if he didn't let it go, I had something else planned.

He finally took the hint and dropped it like I wanted. I really didn't want to have to explain every single reason as to why I didn't want to kiss him senseless right now. He would tell me that I was just being silly and try to make me lose control, which wouldn't be very hard. Silence filled the van once again before Sunny broke it.

"Um... you guys? We're here at the cars and stuff," she said awkwardly, but I didn't blame her; she didn't exactly know what to make of this situation.

"Thanks, Sunny," I replied for everyone as we rolled to a stop. As I moved to get up, I felt Jared's hands on my waist, holding me back.

"Jared..."

"Sh, Mel. Just promise me that when we get back to the caves we'll have some alone time," he whispered in my ear and I shuddered.

"I can't promise you that," I said to him, no matter how badly I wanted to say the opposite. There was no telling what the mood would be like once we arrived back at the caves, but I was sure that it would be depressing. I couldn't be running off with Jared somewhere at a time like that.

I got up out of his lap just as Kyle opened up the back door, so I jumped out. Once I was outside, I began to unload the various things out of the front of the car so that the driver and passenger would have somewhere to sit. We had taken some things, but not everything, out of the back of the van to accommodate the four people that would be squashed back there on the way to the hospital or medical building or whatever, and the extra bodies that we had planned on bringing back with them. Seeing as how we just ended up filling bags with stuff and bringing back no bodies, it was a little emptier.

Still, we had accumulated quite a bit of stuff while we were out. I don't know whose bright idea it was to leave the truck back in the hiding spot and just take the car, but we were just about out of space everywhere as it was. I guessed that it was kind of a good thing that we didn't end up taking souls back with us, as there wasn't much room left. Jared climbed out and I began passing him things to put in the van. We worked quickly, and much like an assembly line, taking things out of the car and passing them along until they were put in the van. Ian didn't get out of the van to help, but I didn't blame him. If I were in his situation, I wouldn't want to do much either. While we were filling up the van again, I was handing Jared a bag full of something, I couldn't quite remember what it was, and he dropped it. The bag rolled on the ground a little ways away and when Jared went to retrieve it, he tripped over a rock on the ground and ended up kicking it right underneath the van.

"Wonderful job Jared," I said to him sarcastically and he rolled his eyes before getting down on his stomach and inching his way under the van to retrieve it.

Pretty soon the van was filled up again, as was the back seat and trunk of the car, though we took a little more out of the car than we intended to; Kyle argued that they would need to see out the back through the rear view mirror at all times, and he had a valid point. We didn't need them getting into a car accident on our way back; it would just raise more suspicion, and since we were probably already being tracked down, it wouldn't be good at all. I wanted to just push the stuff off to the side, but Sunny pointed out that souls don't generally overstuff their car like us humans used to when we were going somewhere far away; they would rather rent a trailer or something to put the extra stuff in than cram it to the roof.

Eventually we were all set and ready to go. Jared closed up the back of the van, Ian already inside it and surrounded by all of the various things we had picked up on the raid. I climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door with a loud bang, looking around for any sign of Ian, but I couldn't see him at all. Jared opened up the driver's side door and threw three bags ahead of him into the van. They all miraculously landed in the space between our seats in a semi-neat pile. He jumped in and leaned right over so that his lips were near my ear.

"They told me to grab Wanda's bag, but I refused," he said to me and backed away, glancing towards the back of the van and I nodded in understanding.

"It's probably best that you didn't, who knows what will set him off," I whispered as he closed his door and started the car.

"Exactly why I didn't take it. We'll have to hide it or something when we get back there," he said, but I frowned and shook my head.

"It won't do any good to do that," I told him. "If that were the case, we'd have to clear out his entire room before he stepped into that, and that's not going to happen. Sure he'll be hurting, but destroying all evidence will kill him more than anything."

Jared seemed to think about that for a minute before nodding and throwing the van into reverse.

"You're probably right Mel," he responded and I smirked.

"Of course I am," I said to him and we both chuckled at that.

I sighed once more before turning my head and looking out the window as the dark scenery flew by us once again. I was looking forward to getting back to the caves so that I could sleep in my own bed. I was also dreading everyone's reaction to there only being five of us returning instead of six. We would get a lot of flak for that, and I figured that a new fear of being caught would enter everyone's mind, which I guessed was something legitimate to worry about. For all we knew the rest of us were being tracked or something. I shuddered at the thought and hoped that we weren't being followed. It would be horrible to go down at a time like this.

Before I realized it, fat tears were rolling silently down my cheeks. I bit my lip trying to keep them in but I couldn't so instead I just kept looking out of the window to try and hide them from Jared, as he would make a big deal out of it. It seemed as though all my emotions were finally catching up with me and my eyes began to close as I slowly drifted off to sleep.

**Ian POV**

I couldn't move.

I wasn't saying that physically I couldn't move my muscles the ways that I wanted them to move, but mentally I couldn't will myself to move at all.

That's why I stayed in this little crouched position while the others moved stuff from the car to here, effectively surrounding me with stuff.

Not that I minded.

I would rather crouch here all alone and have my muscles screaming in protest than allow myself to move around like nothing had happened; like nothing was wrong, because that was shit. Something _was_ wrong, horribly wrong and nobody else seemed too bothered by the fact that we had just lost someone off of our raid.

I could hear Mel and Jared whispering after they got in the van; I wasn't deaf, but I didn't care enough to listen in at all.

After awhile I could hear the quiet crying and sniffling coming from the direction of Mel's chair. Just hearing her crying almost made me want to break down, but I couldn't. I had to remain strong for Wanda and I. I couldn't allow myself to break apart into pieces; at least not while I was with anyone. I listened for Jared to comfort her, but he didn't.

I shook my head at him. If Wanda were crying like Mel, I would have gone out of my way to comfort her, but Jared didn't seem too bothered by this.

Wanda.

I needed her.

I needed to get her back.

I had to think of something, and fast, before it was too late.

**So yes.  
Bit of writer's block on that one, but we pulled through.  
AND! Can I just say holey moley, I'm only 3 reviews away from 300! That's pretty sweet! I have to thank you all SO much for your awesome reviews!!!!  
Well, it's like 12:30am and I need my sleep. I hope that this chapter sort of owned up to at least half of your expectations.  
Review : )**


	21. Heading Home

**A/N: Late. Again.  
I've been having a really rough time getting motivated to write this/writer's block isn't helping. I've got a million different ideas for different fics running through my head and am trying to get them out, but unfortunately this one took a back seat for awhile. It won't happen again, I swear. I'll be updating again ASAP, as I've got some ideas for this one.**

**Thank you, thank you to hanaharoo, HOLLYZ, ChiKa YuMe, Harleygreen, sarah12345, brokenfromthepast, EdwardIsMySoulmate, shouvley, ..moon.135, Cullen Number10, pwrmom2, WandaCullenBelikovOShea, Anaeli, picolover22, LadyMalfoyx, EdwardAlways, .Author, Matei-san, Little-Miss-Giggle-Fit, Newfoundland Novelist, dodgydolphin181, ThatKindOfGirl, PeetaMellarkLove and mediate89 for your wonderfully awesome reviews! I couldn't have reached 300 reviews without you! : )**

**Wanda POV**

Letting Ian walk away from me was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The shock didn't have time to set in before I felt multiple sets of hands touching me. All I could do was surrender by that point and let them have me. A can of something was taken out, but I didn't bother looking around to see what it was; I just wanted so badly to run after Ian and away from these strangers, but I knew there was no use. In what felt like an eternity, I could smell blueberries and in a few seconds my eyes had closed and I was unconscious.

**Tracker POV**

"She's out," Sky informed me and I nodded, looking around the hallway.

Claws of Glass was looking a little nervous all of a sudden and began to go off in the direction that the humans had disappeared in.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked him and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"I...I thought. Well... those were humans!" he stuttered as I raised my eyebrows at him. He knew this before we had even left that tiny room, why was this such a big deal now?

"Yes, and?" I prompted him, hoping to get a good explanation out of him.

"Well, should we capture them?" he asked and I could see that he was itching to run after them, but they were probably long gone, so I shook my head.

"No. We have this soul here," I nodded my head in Sky's direction. "She can lead us to them, and the others that are like them. So instead of holding four or so people, we've got one who by the looks of it was only too eager to get away from them, if the fact that she stayed behind was any indication. It should be easy to get information from her."

He didn't say anything more, but simply nodded after I explained it to him and I turned to Sky and the soul in question.

"Let's get her upstairs," I instructed him, turning my back. "We need to get her set up before she wakes up, or there will be no telling what will happen."

Drops of Water finally caught up with us then, slightly out of breath, and I caught his elbow, turning him around so that he fell into step with me.

"We need to find a private room for this young lady in a place where our presence won't attract a lot of attention," I said to him and he nodded right away.

"I have just the place for you," he said and motioned for me to follow him.

"Will you two bring her up with us?" I asked Sky, turning around and walking backwards. "Surely you shouldn't have much trouble with that; she doesn't look like she weighs all that much."

"We'll be fine," Sky said and bent down to pick her up. By the time we reached the elevators, they had caught up with us again.

"We'll head up to the old ICU ward," Drops of Water said and I nodded as we all stepped inside the elevator. "Nobody is ever up there, as we no longer have a need for it."

It was true, after all. When we had first arrived on this planet, one of the first things we did was advance their medical supplies, so that places like the Intensive Care Unit were no longer needed. Everything from small cuts and bumps to amputations and broken bones were mended down in the Emergency Room. Places like the ICU and large operating theatres were no longer used; the smaller day surgery rooms used for insertions.

While we were in the elevator, the girl began to move around; almost like she was coming out of the sleep Sky had put her in. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows, causing him to panic and check his pockets for something. By the time she had begun to moan louder, he had located the small can of Asleep that I had given him earlier and was spraying the air directly around her nose.

"Careful with that," I warned Sky and he looked up at me confused as the girl slumped to the floor again.

"It should go without saying," Drop of Water said and I nodded, but clearly Sky wasn't into thinking just then, for he still looked puzzled.

"We're in a confined space; if you spray too much of that, we'll all be asleep," I finally relented and told him and one could literally see the light bulb go off in his head as he finally understood.

"Right, good call Red Fires," Sky said to me and I rolled my eyes as the doors dinged and then finally opened.

We all began to exit the elevator, lead by Drops of Water, and quietly travelled the halls. As it was to be expected, we didn't meet too many other people on the way to the room, and those that we did come across briskly walked by. I supposed that they didn't stop to inquire what was going on since both Drops of Water and Claws of Glass were escorting us. We arrived at a door that seemed to satisfy Drops of Water and he unlocked us, letting Sky go in with the girl ahead of us.

Inside the room, it was just like a plain old room that someone might stay in to recover from something. There were the plain white walls along with a single bed in the middle of the room. Just to prove that we didn't use any of the archaic tools that the former occupants of this planet did, the instruments had been pushed up against the far walls in the room and covered with old linen sheets.

Sky lay the girl down on the bed and she groaned a little before settling back down into her peaceful slumber. He then reached over and covered her up with a blanket that was folded and placed on the stand by the bed. I raised my eyebrows at him to silently question his motive and he shrugged before responding.

"She'll probably get cold in here," he explained. "I just want to make her as comfortable as possible."

"Why on Earth would we want to do that?" Claws of Glass asked, and it was clear that he was still a little jumpy at the close encounter with the humans from before.

"Well, the more accommodating to her that we are; the more likely she is to give us some answers," I explained. "Now all we have to do is wait for her to wake up."

I pulled up a chair and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible in the small thing.

"Claws of Glass, if I were you I would station two of your security personnel outside the door, just in case," I advised him, slouching down in the chair and closing my eyes.

"Yes sir, right away," he answered and was running out of the room for a phone.

"Sky, keep an eye on the humans and where they go. Wake me if anything drastic happens," I instructed him before tuning everything out and falling asleep. There was no point in staying awake and watching the girl sleep. We would have time to ask her plenty of questions later, and I wanted to be fresh for that time.

**Wanda POV**

I was awake for a brief moment, but before I could take in my surroundings, I smelled blueberries again and was asleep before I knew it.

I dreamt of Ian.

It wasn't fair to him, I knew it wasn't. Leaving so abruptly and lying to him like that had probably ruined our relationship forever, not that I was guaranteed to get back to the caves or anything. I had to do it though, I just had to. It was me that they wanted, not anybody else. I knew that they just wanted me to ask me all kinds of questions about Ian and Mel and everybody, but I sure wasn't going to give them the right answers. My lying skills would certainly be put to the test here.

Ian.

His face as I saw it in my subconscious state was nothing like the last image that I had of him; looking completely defeated and broken. I imagined Ian as the happy guy that I knew that he was. The recurring dream that I kept having featured the two of us on vacation somewhere warm.

_Ian and I were standing on a beach and I was letting the soft sand run through my toes. I looked up at his blue eyes to see nothing but love and adoration in them. Slowly, he reached his hand out, offering it to me and I quickly slipped mine into his. A brilliant smile lit up his whole face as we took a couple steps together towards the water._

_The water was also a brilliant blue colour, but it was nothing compared to Ian's eyes; I found myself always comparing anything blue to them._

"_Come on Wanda," he said to me, gently tugging my hand and leading the way._

"_Ian, where are we going?" I giggled, tripping a little in the sand to catch up with him._

"_I want you to feel the water, I want the two of us to stand in it together," he said and I couldn't help but to smile. _

"_Alright then, lead the way," I instructed him and could see that he was smiling, even though the back of his head was facing me._

_We took a couple of steps together and I felt the gentle lapping of the waves on my toes. The blue water was very warm and I was surprised, I expected it to be cold. Ian used his free hand to motion out towards the water and I took that opportunity to look around me._

_As far as the eye could see, we were surrounded by water and beach. The ocean looked endless, though I knew that it would meet another shore hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of miles away. I felt two arms circle my waist before a soft pressure on my right shoulder and I looked to the side to see Ian's face inches from mine. Ian placed a gentle kiss on my cheek and I involuntarily blushed._

"_Turn around," he instructed me gently and I complied, wrapping my arms around his neck in the process as he kissed my forehead._

"_I love you, Ian" I told him gently, leaning in to kiss his cheek, but he pulled away from me before I had the chance to._

"_What? What is it?" I asked, looking up to see that he was frowning and his eyes were clouded over with hurt and sadness._

"_Ian, what's wrong?" I asked again, but he shook his head before stepping far away from me._

"_You don't love me," he stated, but I shook my head._

"_Yes, yes I do. I, the soul called Wanda love you..." I started to say, but he shook his head even harder._

"_Lies!" he cried out and stepped away from me again. "You lie to me! You are not Wanda, you are Pet and I hate you. I hate you Pet. I hate you, Wanda for ever coming here. It's because of you that we're in this situation!"_

"_What situation? What are you talking about? It's me, Ian. It's Wanda," I called out to him, tears rapidly clouding over my vision._

"_No it's not," he said sharply and bitterly. "I know better than to fall for your tricks. I hate you, don't you get it! Get out of here!"_

_Ian just kept yelling and yelling despite my best efforts to explain to him what happened, but he kept stepping further and further away from me until I could no longer see him anymore. I finally broke down and cried once I realized that Ian was gone._

That horrible dream kept repeating itself over and over again, and though I tried to wake myself up after Ian disappeared each time, I wasn't able to. It was like there was a giant cloud on my mind and I couldn't break through.

**Sunny POV**

Once we got back into our respective cars, I looked over at Kyle. He insisted on driving since he was adamant that I had done enough of that for one day and that it was his turn. As much as I protested, I knew that it was a losing battle, so I gave up, but as I was looking over and observing him, I noticed just how tired and disturbed over something he seemed.

"Kyle?" I asked gently and he turned his head in my direction. "Are... is everything... are you okay?"

Ever so gently, he shook his head before staring blankly out the front windshield and starting the car. I frowned at his lack of verbal response; it was usually so like him to come up with an answer right away and to see him quiet, I knew that something absolutely horrible must have happened and I knew that it included Wanda. My mind was going crazy with different possibilities and wouldn't rest until I knew.

"Kyle?" I tried again, deciding to push him until I found out exactly what had happened. I deserved to know just as much as the rest of them.

"Kyle, can you please tell me what happened back there? Where is Wanda? I know that something happened, or you wouldn't have come back without her. Why were there all those lights and alarms? What happened?"

Kyle sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair before pulling out behind the van. He was quiet for a few moments before opening his mouth to speak, only to close it again. I was growing impatient and a little anxious at his response, though I knew that I needed to give him time; I just wanted to know before we got back to the caves.

**Kyle POV**

_"How do I tell her?"_ I thought to myself a hundred times as soon as we got in the car. I knew that I was going to have to eventually, I just wasn't totally sure how to put it into words that would come out as something other than swear words; as I knew that would hurt Sunny more than the truth.

She had a right to know, Wanda was the first person that she was able to open up to in these caves aside from me. Those two were like sisters, and it was wrong to keep something like this from her any longer. I just had to man up and actually explain what this soul had done to my brother.

I knew that Wanda probably had a _really_ good excuse for making us leave, but really. Because of what she said, I even doubted whether it really had been Wanda with us all this time, or if it was Pet, like she claimed it was. I seriously hoped it was the former, for my brother's sake, but nobody could ever be sure.

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck a few times, still contemplating on how best to tell Sunny about this.

"Kyle?" she prompted me again and I could tell that she was growing impatient, not that I blamed her; I would want to know if I were her too.

"Sunny... Wanda, she... I can't do this," I admitted, shaking my head and purposely not looking at her.

**Sunny POV**

One Kyle said that, I had had enough; I just wanted to know what happened to my friend, and nobody was telling me.

"Kyle, please," I begged him, turning sideways to look at him, even though he was completely ignoring me.

I bit my lip to try and hide the traitor tears that were threatening to fall due to my frustration, but one of them fell anyways, so I closed my eyes to try and concentrate on keeping them in.

"Sunny, are you...crying?" he asked incredulously and I shook my head as a reflex action. "Sunny, really, you don't need to get so upset."

"Yes I do," I said to him, probably a little harshly but I was beyond the point of caring. "Nobody will tell me anything, and I really just want to know. I'm seriously about to go back in there myself and see what has happened."

"No," he said, putting his hand over mine. "I'll tell you."

He took a deep, calming breath before starting to speak.

"Well, as you probably know, because it's blatantly obvious but Wanda didn't come back with us." He paused then, and I stayed silent, still holding his hand as I wiped away a stray tear that was slowly making its way down my cheek with the other one. Kyle began absently rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb and it mildly soothed me.

"We got inside all right and everything after you dropped us off and found the room that we were looking for. Everyone quickly filled their backpacks with the things that we needed and it was all fine and whatever. But then..." he took a deep breath again. "Once we got back into the hallway, and were almost out of the building, this weird, random alarm started going off..."

"I knew it," I whispered, interrupting him. "I was driving around, and something just didn't feel right; that's why I came back here. I can't believe this. Why? What _happened_?"

"I'm not... totally sure what that alarm meant, and I don't think that any of us really know. Anyhow, we were all trying to get out of there, but before we got too far I noticed that everyone had stopped and it looked like Wanda and Ian were talking about something; though I couldn't imagine what at a time like that,"

"As I got closer, I could hear them, and ... and," he took a deep breath and held my hand a little tighter than before. "She told Ian that Wanda had disappeared; that when they had tried to put her in the body, the soul that lived in it before hadn't been completely taken out. The person that we thought was Wanda convinced us that she was Pet, and that she just wanted to go home. Instead of sticking around to think about this new development, Jared grabbed Ian and I got Mel and we ran out of there."

I bit my lip again while looking out the window and waiting for this new information to sink in. In a way it made sense, but I still couldn't believe that this would happen to someone as kind and loving as Wanda. No wonder Ian was so upset; all this time he had been thinking that the soul he loved was with him when she really wasn't. I really couldn't blame him for his anger or behaviour; no one should be upset with him at all.

I really hoped that wherever Wanda was she was safe, but I would have rather had her safe in Ian's arms in the back of the van than off somewhere alone.

**Wanda POV**

_"No it's not," he said sharply and bitterly. "I know better than to fall for your tricks. I hate you, don't you get it! Get out of here!"_

This time around, instead of continuing to yell, Ian's voice faded into the background and everything got all fuzzy. I realized that the awful dream wasn't going to repeat itself and I was happy at that prospect, but then I was worried if that meant I was going to be waking up. I wasn't quite prepared for whatever was in store for me once I opened my eyes.

I swallowed hard and began to concentrate on what I could hear around me, using my senses. It was almost like coming up from underwater, when your hearing becomes clearer once your head finally breaks the surface; that was the only analogy I could come up with for this waking up process. I was able to hear some things around me; a person, probably a man, was snoring, another person was tapping their fingers, someone was pacing the room.

From my sense of touch, I concluded that I was lying down on something. It wasn't too hard or anything, but it wasn't the softest thing in the world either. Judging by the crunching sound that the material under my head made when I moved my head infinitesimally, I was lying on some sort of mattress and pillow set; one similar to like I lay on after my original insertion after coming to this planet.

So many questions were running through my head. Why was I still here? Shouldn't they have extracted me from this body and sent me in a cryotank to deep space? Were they planning on torturing me? Where _was_ here? What about the others? Ian.

Ian.

His voice was still clear in my mind from my dream; the part where he yelled at me was most prominent. I knew then that I had to do everything and anything within my power to get back to him. I couldn't leave him thinking for the rest of his life that he had lost me when I was right there in front of him the whole time. That certainly wasn't fair to him, and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't even try to make amends. Even if he didn't want me back after I confessed everything to him, which I couldn't really blame him, I would still rest a little easier knowing that I had tried and told the truth.

I hated what I had done to him, but I had to do it. Since I had sacrificed myself, I had given him and everyone else in the caves a chance to prepare, a chance to continue to live this life that they had made for themselves. If I had just continued to run with them, whoever it was that was after us would have chased us, and there was no telling what they would do to Ian or Mel or Jared if they caught us. Although I still hated having to leave them like that, it was for their own good.

At least that's what I kept telling myself in a feeble attempt to stop the pain that was tearing a hole in my heart.

**Ian POV**

I would be very surprised if anyone had ever felt the amount of pain that I was currently in at all in their lifetime. It was very nearly unbearable, and there was not much I could do about it. The only thing that would satiate it would be to have Wanda back in my arms; and seeing as that wasn't about to happen, I would have to live with this pain.

I didn't want to.

I wanted to turn this stupid van around and run back in there in search of my Wanda, not the person that apparently was living with us for the past few months; no matter the consequences. I was pretty sure that anyone in my place would want to do the same. Of course, there was the issue that Jared was driving and he would never let me do that, so I was resigned to sitting in the back and mourning my love.

I didn't think I would ever get over her, not in this lifetime, at least.

She was my soul mate and I wanted to spend the rest of my days here on this planet with her, no matter what. Now everything was ruined.

I closed my eyes and put my head in the palms of my hands and I felt a little wetness on them, realizing that some tears had fallen from my eyes. Quickly, I tried to stop any future ones from falling, especially in front of Jared and Mel like this. I resolved to allow myself to only have a breakdown from now on out in the confines of my room in the caves, and that was the only place.

I knew that it would get worse as soon as we got back to the caves; everyone would want the story, but I couldn't, I just _couldn't_ bear to tell it myself. To tell them of that, that _soul_ that had taken everything away from me without my knowledge.

I guessed that nothing was what it seemed any more, when the person you thought you loved could end up hurting you in ways that never seemed possible.

**Wanda POV**

I was aware that I was moving around a little bit on the crinkly paper, and tried to stop myself; it was creating a lot of noise and I knew that the others in the room knew that I was awake now. It was drawing a lot of attention to me; and I was a little afraid of what might happen to me when I finally opened my eyes.

I could hear the shuffling of feet on the floor around me and I was sure that they knew I was waking up. It was only a few more minutes until I would have to open my eyes and face this reality, and whatever was coming my way. I was not looking forward to it.

**Tracker POV**

Hours passed with no movement at all from the girl that was lying in the middle of the room. Drops of Water had become quite concerned with her at one point and went to fetch a Healer to bring him in, just to check on the girl since she had been out so long.

We tried to explain that we wanted her to sleep so that she would be refreshed when she woke up for us to talk to her, but he wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he hooked her up to a heart monitor and checked her vitals for signs of distress, claiming that she shouldn't have still been sleeping.

Once we had left the room, I had Sky remove the heart monitor so that she wouldn't be more startled once she finally woke; we certainly didn't need her being scared off and not answering our questions. Though that wouldn't be much of a problem, I had ways to weasel information out of people that only I was authorized to go through with; though I didn't particularly feel like using them on this girl. After all, she had come sort of willingly to us, so she must have been wanting away from those humans for a long time.

I kept pondering the different answers that this young girl might give us and was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't hear Sky until he practically yelled right into my ear.

"Red! Are you listening?"

"What? Yes, yes I am listening. What do you want?" I demanded of him for screaming at me.

"Sorry boss, but..."

I didn't hear the rest of his answer as I noticed that the girl was moving around on the bed. I couldn't help but to smile and slide my chair closer to her, at the ready for the second that her eyes opened.

"She's waking up," I said under my breath and Sky let out a sigh.

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you," he said and I nodded.

"Sorry, was off in another world," I explained, more for myself than for him.

"Red Fires? There are two of my best men standing outside this door," Claws of Glass informed me. "They are not to leave until relieved, and are under strict instructions not to speak of anything they see or hear coming out of or from this room. Is this alright with you?"

"Yes, that's fine," I told him. "I trust that you have faith in these men that they will not breach this protocol. Let them know that they will be rewarded greatly for their service in this task of theirs."

"I will," he vowed and I motioned for him to grab a chair and pull it up beside me.

"I wouldn't want to gawk at her," he said, looking awkwardly around. "I mean, the last thing that she would want is a bunch of faces staring down at her."

Claws of Glass settled for a chair that was near the door, and that was fine with me; I was offering him the spot out of duty.

"Director, would you like to sit with her?" I asked, looking down at her again as her eyes began to flutter.

"No thanks," he replied and slumped further down in his chair. I really got the feeling that he didn't want to be in the room at all, but duty was requiring him to do so; that and the fact that if he was missing for this, it would ruin his career.

"What should we do now? She's waking up! We should move her? Or make her go back to sleep again? I'm not sure, I..."

"Sky!" I said a little harshly and he finally stopped talking. I hated having to raise my voice while the girl was waking up, but Sky was clearly losing his head.

"Sit down and be quiet or I'll make you," I quietly threatened him and he immediately obeyed. "You know what we have to do, there's no reason for you to be panicking like this," I said to him and he nodded, eyes lit with excitement now.

"Sorry about that, I got a little carried away. Of course I know what has to be done," he said and I shook my head, turning my full attention back to the girl.

"The moment is upon us, boys," I said to them as her eyes squeezed tight one last time before opening and I finally got to look down into her silver eyes.

"Hello there," I said softly to her, not wanting to scare the girl. "My name is Red Fires Falling Up. You are in a Healing Facility. Please don't panic, nothing bad happened to you, I just have a few questions for you. Some of my friends are here with me, but they won't harm you; none of us will. What is your name?"

It felt like years until she finally got around to moving her lips to answer.

**Wanda POV**

I couldn't hold off the inevitable any longer. The lights that I knew were behind my eyelids over head of me were too bright and I was straining to keep my eyes closed against them, but my body had other plans and wanted me to open them.

I gave in.

In front of me was a man, but I didn't try to focus on him, I instead began to look around the room, squinting at the lights. I noticed three other people in the room with me, but didn't feel scared at all by them. In fact, they seemed to be more scared of me than anything. There was a silence in the room then and I realized that I was supposed to say something. I wracked my brains and then guessed that he wanted my name.

I just decided to use the same one that I had used in the Healer's office when I had gone in and raided them.

"Earth Dancing Wind."

I realized that I had given the right answer after all, for in front of me, giving me a wide grin was the person that I held the door open for as I was leaving the Healer's office, and his buddy was right behind him.

This didn't look good.

**Ian POV**

It literally felt like someone had taken my heart out of my chest and stomped on it with some of those pointy high heels that Mel wore sometimes before putting it back all battered and broken.

That was the best analogy that I could come up with as we turned off the dark highway onto the dirt on our way back to the hideout where the Jeep was.

I wished so much that Wanda were here with us.

Instead I was going back without her.

Alone.

**Mel POV**

Once we turned off the main road, I knew that this was it. I didn't know how we were going to be able to walk through those halls of the caves without being constantly reminded of Wanda. Jared must have sensed my distress, for I felt his hand taking mine and squeezing it gently. I didn't respond, only looked out the window at the now dark landscape around us.

Since there were clearly people on the lookout, for us, we decided to go back to the hideout first to wait a couple hours before going back to the main caves. I knew that this plan had the potential to ruin us, but I wasn't going to argue with Jared on this one. He did know more about the raids than I did, after all.

Everyone was going to be so disappointed and upset that we didn't bring Wanda back with us. Doc, Jeb, Trudy, Lily; everyone. Even... I faltered. Jamie.

He cared for Wanda so much like a sister that this was going to honestly destroy him. I felt wetness on my cheeks at the thought of it. Unfortunately, this was the one thing that I could not; absolutely could not keep from him. He would find out one way or another, and it would kill him.

**Jared POV**

As we got closer to the hideout and I saw that it was coming up into my line of vision, I glanced over and saw the look on Mel's face. It looked like she was going to lose it. My strong Melanie was on the verge of a breakdown and there was nothing that I could do about it here in the van. Instead, I did the only thing that was available for me to do under these circumstances; I held her hand and squeezed it. To my dismay, she hardly acknowledged it, but I still held it; she needed me for support whether she wanted to admit it or not.

I glanced in the rear view mirror at the huddled figure that was swaying a little bit with the movements of the van behind the boxes in the back. Going back was going to be hell for all of us, but especially for him. I felt a surge of almost brotherly protectiveness over him and wanted to clear the building over everything that might possible remind him of 'Wanda', but then I realized that we would have to completely move out in order for me to accomplish something like that.

I pulled us into the hideout far enough in so that Kyle had room to pull in behind me before I cut the engine. I immediately looked over at Mel and saw that she was crying; my heart breaking as I saw how distressed she was. I lifted the armrests between us and reached over to undo her seatbelt. In one swift motion, I put my hands under her arms and lifted Mel up and over the space in between us to seat her on my lap.

I moved my seat back from the wheel so that she wouldn't be smashed up into it and she cuddled into my chest as soon as I stopped moving. I kissed her forehead and soothingly brushed my hands through her head while she cried into my shirt. At the sound of my angel's sobs, I internally cursed 'Wanda' and 'Pet' and anybody else that had something to do with this. Nobody should ever make my Mel cry, and these girls or souls or whatever should have to pay for the amount of grief they caused everyone.

I knew that they shouldn't have been trusted from the very beginning. They tricked everyone.

Including me.

**Won't be late again. **

**Promise.  
On another note. New Moon trailer... any thoughts/comments on it? And Taylor Lautner is going to be at the Much Music Video Awards here in Toronto on Sunday if anyone wants to watch for him. And I think Rachelle Lefevre is going to be there too..**

**Review! : )**


	22. Lies

**A/N: I. Feel. Horrible.  
See AN at the end of this chapter. I won't keep you waiting any longer.**

**Thank you SO MUCH to hanaharoo, dodgydolphin181, HOLLYZ, nemo123489, australia427, sarah12345, EdwardAlways, CullenNumber10, IanandWandaOshea4, ..moon.135, Flamed Rose, Little-Miss-Giggle-Fit, JTheGreat88, mangos, Snikkers, O'SheaFan, Zutara'z twilight, eniyikedi, Princess Skye and Shannon17 for your wonderfully awesome reviews, and for hopefully sticking with me! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

After a second glance around the small room, I noticed the two other men that were looking kind of awkward in this situation, and it seemed as though they didn't want to be there. I also recognized that the room was set up like one in a Healing Facility, and I realized that they hadn't moved me far at all; which I thought was strange, unless they were counting on the others to come back for me or something.

As I looked back into the man's smiling face, thinking that he must have been a Seeker or something, I knew that I was in this alone. The others wouldn't come back for me, as much as I wanted, or they wanted to. That would be like walking to their own deaths.

"Well Hello there Earth Dancing Wind, my name is Red Fires Falling Up, and this is my partner Skies Above." I gave them a tight smile, my eyes darting over towards the other two un named men. Red Fires Falling Up glanced over to where I was looking and smiled again.

"Ah, yes. Over by the door we have Claws of Glass, and behind Sky is Drops of Water."

I looked around and examined the two other men. Claws of Glass was obviously seated by the door for a reason, as he kept glancing at it nervously every couple of seconds; almost as if he were going to bolt at any second. Drops of Water, on the other hand, had sat up in his chair a little and was leaning forward, almost gawking at me. The action made me feel uncomfortable being under such scrutiny.

I knew that in order to get out of here alive and well, to avoid being taken out and having someone else put inside Pet's body, I had to lie; and that made me extremely nervous. Lying to get little medical supplies or those contraceptives was one thing. It was entirely different when one's life was on the line.

"Why are you here?" I whispered to them, not able to speak any louder out of fear.

"Well you see Claws of Glass here is the head of security here at the Healing Facility; Drops of Water is the director of the facility. Sky and I are partners and we belong to the Tracking Bureau."

I frowned, not actually having to lie or anything as the next question passed my lips.

"I've never heard of the Tracking Bureau, what is it?"

Red Fires Falling Up chuckled and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We don't really like to advertise. It's sort of a secret department that few people have heard of. We were more commonly known in the past, but you've been living with the humans so long that you probably wouldn't remember," he muttered the last part to himself and I bit my lip. This body had no recollection of the name either.

"You might as well sit up and get comfortable," he advised me and I nodded in acquiescence sitting up and placing a pillow behind my back for support. "Sky here," he snapped his fingers at his partner, "will get you a glass of water."

I nodded and gave another half smile as Sky jumped up immediately to fetch a glass. We waited until he returned with the water for Red Fires Falling Up to start speaking.

"The Trackers, as we like to call ourselves, are sort of like a specialized kind of Seeker," he began at once, absently scratching at a spot on his hand. "We're in control of seeking and breaking up the colonies of humans that are still out there. It's up to the regular Seekers until a point, but once they have enough valid information, we go in after them. We have a very good success rate of finding and demolishing these colonies. In turn, one usually leads us to another; but most of the time through force."

I involuntarily shuddered at the fact that these two souls in front of me were specifically designed to search out people like my family in the caves and bring them down. My mind immediately thought of Ian and how I could have ever let this happen. He took my shudder the wrong way though, and thought that I was shuddering at the thought of humans themselves.

"Ah, you see? Humans are horrible creatures; it's a good thing that we came to this planet to balance them out. This world is much better off now that it's under our influence," he nodded to himself, and I nodded, keeping up my little charade.

"How... how did you find out about me?" I asked him, biting my lip a little in anticipation for the answer.

"Well, your case was a little bit interesting, let me tell you," he began and I knew that this would take awhile. "Your disappearance was obviously noticed by your mother, Cloud Spinner, and she immediately went to the nearest Seeker station,"

"The Seekers there thought that maybe you had just wandered off for a little bit; perhaps for a walk or went out with friends and forgot to call. It was an unlikely probability, but some of us still feel inclined to do what our hosts did before the insertion, and that might have been one of the things that she did,"

"Another day or two had passed and you still hadn't returned home, so Cloud Spinner called the Seekers again, who immediately mobilized a search party of the surrounding area. They had to keep it quiet, as these things don't generally happen to us anymore, and the Seekers didn't want it getting out that people were disappearing from their homes; it was something that only happened back in the human days,"

"That was their first clue that there might be human activity involved, so they widened their search area until they began to notice some other disappearances in and around Tucson, so they got in touch with the Seekers there. From there, the search widened until it was absolutely certain that humans were involved. That's when we were called in."

On the outside, I was wide eyed and sweating, showing all the obvious signs of fear; which seemed to appease the Tracker as I should naturally feel fear at the mention of humans. Inside, I was freaking out and my heart was beating about a hundred beats a minute because a part of me knew that it was over for Ian and everyone; myself included. I was scared that they knew were the caves were and feared the next words to leave his mouth. I was really glad that I wasn't hooked up to any sort of monitor for that, or it would surely be embarrassing.

"Well, we got a call from a Seeker who was positioned at a station; I believe that his name was..." Red Fires Falling Up began snapping his fingers while trying to think of the name. "Sky, what was the name?" he finally asked his partner.

"It was Rolling Oceans, Red," Sky replied and I felt my heart literally drop into my stomach. I felt like crying out or something as I recognized the name of the Soul who was 'flirting with me' as Mel had said all those days ago.

"You're right," Red nodded before continuing on with the story. I was a little scared to hear the rest to be completely honest, but I figured that I didn't really have a choice in the matter.

"So Rolling Oceans called me with a report of a young girl around 17 with blonde hair driving a big van with her boyfriend that he had come across at his temporary station. He claiming that you matched the description of the person that he had seen a picture of a few days ago, still missing,"

"Once we had a general location, Sky and I set off after you guys, guessing on where you had gone to. We checked a few hotels outside of the city once it got closer to dusk and at one of them we noticed a van sitting in the parking lot that matched the one that we had been told about earlier. We staked out the van, hoping that we were right and this was it when we saw everyone come out of the room and pack into it, taking off somewhere,"

"So naturally, we followed you around everywhere after that. I'm sure that you recognize us from Healer Peace's office?" he asked and I couldn't help but to nod. There was no way I could deny it, as we had had direct contact there.

"Well while the van was parked outside the offices, Sky attached a tracking device to the bottom of it when no one was looking."

My heart literally stopped beating for a few seconds after he told me that. That had to mean that they were following us almost the whole raid. That couldn't have been possible, could it? How had no one noticed this device; or even see it being placed onto the bottom? Granted, on that particular day, Ian was very preoccupied and everything, but surely Jared and Kyle should have noticed. What came out of Red Fires' mouth confirmed my suspicions.

"This allowed us to follow you around without having a visual at all times. We knew all the stops that the van made and everything you guys did. After speaking to Healer Peace, we followed, occasionally listening in on the conversations between everyone to try and get a heading. We were watching as you were in a gas station when it was mentioned that you were coming here to 'raid before coming home' and knew that this was the perfect place to intervene."

He seemed quite proud of himself for getting all the information and singlehandedly coming up with a plan to 'capture' me, so I had to play along and smile for his sake, if nothing else.

"So because we had enough warning, I brought us directly here where we were able to get in contact with Claws of Glass and Drops of Water to help us with this, and now here you are!"

"I just have one question," I said in a small voice, and Red Fires immediately began to nod his head, eager to answer anything. "How come you just took me and not the others then?" I was really dreading the answer to this question, but I just had to know.

"We were hoping that you might be able to give us directions to their whereabouts; their home base, if you will. We figured if we did it that way, we might be able to find more humans, other than the ones with you."

I shuddered at the thought of everyone down in the caves being captured because of me. That would never happen on my watch though. Not if I could help it.

"I... um... well, you see..." I looked away, uncomfortable with the fact that they were asking this of me. I tried to think of something quick, so that it would seem natural and not fake.

"They never let me see where it was. I have no idea where the place they call home is," I told them, trying to look sorry that I couldn't give them the information that they needed.

Red Fires' face immediately fell, and though I knew he was disappointed, there wasn't much he could do. He had to trust me, as that was the one fault of our species; he would never suspect that I would lie to him.

"Well if you didn't know what it looked like or anything; how did you get inside?" he asked, sitting forward on his chair a little, leaning towards me.

I quickly glanced around at everyone in the room and saw that I had their undivided attention. Claws of Glass and Drops of Water looked a little more comfortable in the room; Drops of Water was no longer eyeing the door, and were both intently looking in my direction, waiting for my next words.

"They blindfolded me or carried me inside there; I was never able to see when we went inside. More often than not I was blindfolded _and_ carried inside. They didn't want to chance having me know where exactly they were located in case I escaped and went to the nearest Seeker."

'_Well,'_ I thought to myself. _'That was at least half true.'_

"What did the inside of the place look like?" Sky asked, speaking for the first time in a long while and I jumped at the new voice, not expecting him to speak. He apologized and I nodded in acceptance of the apology before taking a deep breath and speaking.

"It varied from place to place. They didn't stay in one place for too long; always on the move. Sometimes it looked very dingy and dirty, almost like... a warehouse or something. Well, most of the time, actually," I added, knowing that they would be searching every available warehouse that they could.

"Other times it was a nicer place. Hotels sometimes. It really depended on where they were."

"And where did they gravitate to the most?" Red Fires asked. "Did they have a place where they tended to frequent?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "There wasn't really one place. They travelled all over in the hopes of not getting caught. They didn't want to stick down roots just in case something happened and they were able to be tracked back to that place."

I thought of telling them of Jared's house that was out in the middle of the desert, but then I remembered that it must have been found months ago back when they were still searching for me and Mel's body. Now they had unknowingly found me, just in another body. The thought that I had been caught after all was very unsettling and I couldn't help but to move around uncomfortably.

"I suppose that makes sense then," Red Fires mused to himself. "You know, I keep trying to put myself in a humans' perspective in a situation like that, running from someone, and I just can't. I can't imagine not giving into the ways of society now and everything," he said aloud to no one in particular, and I kept my mouth shut. There was _no_ way that I was going to be revealing that I knew what it was like to him.

"Do you know exactly how many humans are left? How many are we up against?" Red Fires asked me and I shrugged.

'_Lies,'_ I said to myself. I knew _exactly_ how many were in the caves and I knew the rough estimates of the other clans out there, but kept my mouth shut.

"There is just the ones that are with me," I answered, and as much as I hated telling him that much and putting Ian, Mel and everyone in danger, it was a little better than telling him the actual numbers. I thought that he might go into cardiac arrest of something if he heard the real numbers.

"So why did they make you come out with them? We saw you taking a bunch of things and putting them into that van; was there a reason that you needed them?" Sky asked and Red Fires nodded, eagerly awaiting my response.

"They were just supplies that they needed to survive. Nobody can live without supplies and things. We all need them, it's inevitable that they would need to stop and that," I said, trying not to give too much away or anything.

"Hm, that certainly gives you something to think about," he said to himself, and I nodded again.

"Sky," Red Fires snapped his fingers at the other man and he eagerly stepped forwards as he was beckoned. "I need an update on the whereabouts of the van."

"Right away, Red; I've got my equipment right here with me."

Sure enough, he turned around and made his way over to the counter that was along the wall by the door. Claws of Glass moved out of his way as he retrieved one of the bags sitting on top of it, and rummaged around for a few seconds before extracting a small hand held device.

Once he brought it over, I was able to see that it was very much like a cell phone. He pressed a few buttons and a map appeared on the screen. Before he handed it to Red Fires, I was able to see a yellow glowing dot pulsing on the screen as it moved along.

Fear gripped my insides and I felt my stomach turn to ice before dropping down to my feet. I realized that the pulsing light was showing the exact location of the people that I loved the most in this whole universe. It finally hit me that they were unknowingly being tracked, and that they would be revealing the exact location of the rockslide, effectively leading Red Fires and Sky to them. In no time at all, the entire resistance in the caves would be wiped out, and there was nothing that I could do about it sitting in this bed here at the Healing Facility.

I felt sick to my stomach.

"Yes, that is one important dot,' Red Fires remarked before moving the small device away from my line of vision so that he could examine it closer.

I wanted so desperately to know where they were headed at this very instant, but there was no way that I could ask without completely giving us away. If I asked, they would want to know why I needed to know, and I didn't want to have to endure the questions that would follow.

Luckily, I didn't have to ask that question after all, as Sky came to my rescue.

"Where are they headed?" he asked Red Fires who was smirking a bit as he was looking at my loved ones on that little screen. The look on his face made me want to stand up and smash it to pieces or throw it out the window; anything to save the rest of them. I kept my cool though and waited for the response.

"They're heading north again and are almost in Salt Lake City," he informed all of us and I noticed that the other two men, who were still present in the room, though not saying much at all, breathe a sigh of relief, I supposed.

My mind was flying as Sky and Red Fires kept talking amongst themselves as I was trying to figure out why on Earth they were headed up North again when they were already so close to the hideout and the caves. The only logical explanation that I could think of was that they were taking a detour to attempt to shake off anyone that might possibly be following them after the incident today. They were being followed, just not in the way that they thought they were.

I closed my eyes and tried to keep the impending nausea at bay that seemed to be taking over me at this new revelation of mine.

"Earth Dancing Wind, are you alright?" I could hear Red Fires asking me and I opened up my eyes again, the sick feeling receding for the moment.

"Oh, yes I'm just feeling a little tired; it's been a long day for me and a lot has happened," I explained and he smiled and nodded.

"How about you rest a little, we will leave you here and you can sleep," he offered and I immediately nodded, grateful for the time alone to process everything that he was willing to give me.

"Alright, we will all leave the room and leave you alone," he said as he and Sky stood up.

"Should we leave my two staff outside the door then as well?" Claws of Glass directed the question to Red Fires who seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding.

"I believe that would be a good idea," he nodded and I opened my eyes wide, not liking the idea of having people standing around outside the door to this room. Sky seemed to notice my bit of reluctance about the idea and smiled at me gently.

"Don't worry Earth Dancing Wind they're just looking out for your own safety. We don't want anything more to happen to you after everything. I'm sure that you'll appreciate it after everything you've gone through."

"Thank you," I told him sincerely and the four of them quickly left the room, leaving me alone by myself for the first time.

I bit my lip and tried to hold it together at least until I could hear their footsteps retreat down the hall and I couldn't hear them anymore, but a few silent tears escaped despite my efforts. I couldn't stand it anymore. They were all doomed and had no idea; and there was nothing that I could do about it.

All I wanted was out of there now, and there was no telling what they were going to do to me next. I was very surprised that they had swallowed my little story as easily as they did. But then again, they could also have been putting on a show.

I tried so hard to stop the tears and bit my lip in a last-ditch effort to do so. I wondered what Ian, Jared, Mel, Sunny and Kyle were doing at this moment and why they were headed back north again. That was the big question that I could think of. Why?

I lay my head back and closed my eyes, scrunching down on the bed a little until I was lying down. I rolled onto my side while wrapping my arms around my middle as an effort to try and hold it together. I knew that there were still two people standing outside my door, so I couldn't be that loud; though it could be passed off as being happy to be away from 'the humans' as Red Fires kept calling them.

Something crinkled in my right front pocket of the shorts I was wearing and I frowned, trying to remember what I could have put in there. I rolled onto my back for a minute while I extracted a piece of paper from it before lying on my side again, unfolding the paper at the same time.

My hand flew up to my face as I recognized the writing as Ian's and remembered that I had put the letter from him in my pocket each day, as I always wanted to have him near me wherever I went. I really appreciated the fact that I had placed it in there that morning so that it was with me then.

Ian.

My heart broke again as I thought of the look on his face when I told him to go. Thinking back, I might have had time to run with them, but then again, whose to say that Red Fires and Sky and everyone wouldn't have chased us down. Then they would have caught not one of us, but six, and it would have led to everyone's death. This way, in its own twisted way, was better for them. That's what I kept telling myself as the letters on the page blurred over again.

Eventually, I fell into a dreamless sleep after I could smell the overwhelming scent of blueberries in the room, making sure that I tucked Ian's letter into my sock for safe keeping before I completely gave myself over.

I woke up and felt something strange on my left wrist. Without opening my eyes, I tried to take it off, noticing that it was cold and hard, almost like metal. After a few tugs, it wouldn't budge so I opened my eyes in a panic and looked down at the new thing on my arm. My eyes widened as I saw that it was indeed made of metal and had a red light blinking on it.

"_This can't be good,"_ I thought to myself.

**Red Fires' POV**

Once we were out of the room and far enough away, I turned to the three people that were still following me, taking notice of the two men standing guard outside of Earth Dancing Wind's room.

"Claws of Glass, I think it would be helpful if we kept an eye on those cameras out around the building for a few hours," I addressed him and he began to nod immediately.

"Right, we never know if they'll come back looking for her," he responded and I smiled a little.

"My thoughts exactly. They may not come back for her, but you just never know."

"Alright, I'm on it Red Fires," he said to me, turning to head back the way that we had just come from before turning and walking backwards. "And I'll page you if something comes up?"

"Right away," I told him before he turned the corner and disappeared.

I turned back around to the remaining two men.

"Drops of Water, is there anything that we can put in that room to help our friend fall asleep? I have a feeling that it won't come to her very easily and anything that we could do to help her would be much appreciated. I can only imagine the horrors that she has seen during her time with the humans," I asked him nicely, more as a formality than anything. Technically I had the authority to administer it over his head, but I didn't feel like stepping over him when he had already been so accommodating to us.

"There certainly is something that we can give her, and I'm sure that you're well aware of it," he told me with a smirk. "We can either put the Asleep through the vents into her room or we can administer it through the door; one of us sticking our arm through."

I weighed those options for a second before turning to Sky.

"What do you think?" I asked him and he seemed a little taken back.

"What, me?"

I nodded and he thought about it.

"I think that we should just do it through the vents. If we try to open the door and stick a limb through it, she'll obviously become suspicious and then we would have to explain ourselves. I think that it would be best if we could just have her fall asleep without knowing that we were involved; therefore, the vents are the best way to go."

My eyes opened wide at his reasoning for it; obviously I had been mentoring him well as he was very logical and this plan of his was well thought out.

"Well Sky, I think that it's a great idea," I told him, stepping a little closer and clapping him on the back. "I like it so much that I believe that you should do the honours by crawling up there and setting it off. I'm sure that Drops of Water and Claws of Glass could help you out getting up and in there."

"Uh, sure boss," he replied before turning around and speaking to Drops of Water who motioned for him to follow, telling him that he would get a can of Asleep before proceeding any further.

I couldn't help but to smile as I turned around and began to walk back towards Earth Dancing Wind's door. Once I was standing outside of it, I set down the heavy bag that I had been carrying around this whole time and rummaged around through it until I found what I was looking for.

I pulled the metal cuff out of the container that I had it in for safe keeping. With a few twirls of the dials on it, and after checking it's accuracy with my hand held screen, I decided that it was ready to be put on her. It was a tracking device, and I decided that it would be beneficial to us all to have one put on her person; one might never know when or if the humans might come back to get her.

With this cuff on her arm, it would enable us to track them to a finer degree, as there was still some room for error on the one that I had on the van.

I waited a few minutes before nodding at the guards outside her door and peeking in through the window. Sure enough, Sky must have done his job, and rather quickly I noted, as she was sound asleep on the little cot that we had thought to put her one. I gently turned the doorknob and entered the room, trying to make as little noise as necessary so as to not disturb her peaceful slumber. After all those months with the humans, she probably needed it.

I quietly crept over to her bedside before gently prying one of her arms from around her waist where she had a surprisingly strong grip on her waist. Quickly, before she noticed, I opened the cuff and slipped it around her small wrist, sliding the two parts together with a small snap. Instinctively, I glanced up at her face to see if the small noise had roused her, but she slept on.

Replacing her arm to its original position, I moved some of the blonde hair that was falling into her face out of the way before pulling the sheets up around her. In her sleep, she shuddered before snuggling tighter underneath them and moaning out. That poor girl had been through enough misery in her short term here on this planet and I was determined to make it so that no other soul ever went through something like that again.

I walked out of the room and picked up my bag again on the way to find Sky once again. One quick glance at my palm computer and I saw the slow pulsing orange dot that signalled Earth Dancing Wind's position and I smiled to myself once again.

**Okay. So.  
Summer kicks my butt as I work Mon-Fri from 7:50-5:15. Plus, it takes me an hour and a bit to drive there, and home. So I never get home till 7. Then I write a bit and go to bed.  
I haven't really been motivated, and I think it's because I've split up Ian and Wanda. I re-read some of the last chapters and was quite mad about it as I know that some of you are, so I'm working REALLY hard to remedy that as fast as I can.  
So then I thought "Hmm. Summer equals cottage on weekends where there is no internet equals no distractions, so mucho time to write." But yeah... the sun and water are just too inviting during the day.  
Then we had a long weekend and I finished this and half of the next one.**

**On to more current news...  
Has anyone seen Harry Potter or My Sister's Keeper? Thoughts?  
Went to a concert on Friday night and had a BLAST! It also inspired me to write as soon as I got up to the cottage (at 1:30am) so yay! It was Rise Against, Rancid and the Saint Alvia Cartel! I HIGHLY recommend going to see Rise Against if you ever get the change. That was my second time seeing them : )**

**Review! :)  
If you're still out there/reading this story/reading this HUGE AN.  
I'M SO SORRY!!**


	23. Back at the Caves

**A/N: Okay here's the next one! After this, it will be a regular update for everyone so that there isn't a large gap in updates again! Thanks for sticking with me through this!**

**Thanks to kimmitwilight, -ThInk-TwIcE-, Shannon17, Newfoundland Novelist, hanaharoo, brokenfronthepast, australia427, HockeeChica, O'SheaFan, native-soul, 123xyz and mediate89 for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Mel POV**

Once I had calmed down enough, I buried my head in his shoulder; a little embarrassed that I had randomly broken down in front of Ian like that when he clearly had his own troubles. Jared didn't seem to mind though. He just held me and rubbed my back, slowly calming me down; and I really appreciated it. I looked up at him and gave a watery smile, leaning into the hand that came up to wipe away a single tear that was still trailing down my cheek.

"You okay Mel?" he whispered to me, giving me a small smile in return, though I'm sure he already knew the answer.

"Not really," I responded, more out of courtesy than anything else.

"I didn't figure that you would be," he admitted, kissing my forehead. I leaned closer to him and wrapped my arms around his neck and could feel his lips pressed to the side of my neck once before he began whispering into my ear.

"It's okay; it will all be okay," he kept repeating, though we both knew it wouldn't.

"It won't Jared. It won't be okay though. I don't want to believe that Wanda's really gone though. I want to hold on to some shred of hope that she's out there and hasn't been destroyed by someone or something," I admitted to him.

"I know Melly. I want the same thing."

"What are we going to do now?" I whispered to him, not really wanting to have this full conversation with him while Ian was still in the back of the van. It felt like we were sneaking around or something and I didn't like the feeling.

"Well, I think that we've hid out here long enough. If they were following us, they surely would have found us by now. It's time that we take these vehicles down to the caves," he said and I nodded a little reluctantly.

I didn't like this plan of his much, but there was no arguing with him now that it had already been set in motion. Just because they didn't come and get us while we were inside the rock slide doesn't mean that they weren't still out there and waiting for us to move on so that they could attack everyone in the caves.

"I know, but it's the best that we can do," Jared replied and I lifted my head off his chest to look up at him, frowning a little.

"You said it out loud," he clarified and I nodded in understanding.

"I've got to stop doing that," I told him and he smiled a little; though I knew that if the situation was different he would have laughed his head off.

"Don't worry about it; I love it when you do that," he told me, nuzzling his face into my hair.

"You just like it because you can make fun of me afterwards," I teased before kissing his cheek and started to unwrap my hands from around his neck.

"I really don't want to let you go," he told me and I nodded.

"I don't want to let go, but we have to if we want to get going. I promise that when we're back and everyone is safe that we can have some alone time," I promised him as his hands fell away from my body and I crawled back over to my own seat.

"Besides," I added, offering him a small smile. "We need to talk anyways."

The look of alarm that crossed his face was almost comical and I had to bite my lip from laughing out loud.

"I... it's." He cleared his throat, trying to compose his thoughts. "It's nothing bad, is it?"

"Of course not," I reassured him, but he still looked a little sceptical. "I'm not going to do anything to harm either or us or our relationship. Promise."

"Pinkie swear?" he asked, holding up his right pinkie to me.

"Yes," I replied, hooking my left one with his as we shook on it.

"Alright then, let's get this show on the road," he said, turning on the car and switching into reverse.

I glanced into the side mirror and saw Kyle start to back the car out of the rock slide just before we started to move ourselves. Once we were out, Jared threw the van into drive and we sped away down towards the cave entrance. I glanced behind us and noticed that someone had thought to attach a tarp to the back of our van; I could only guess that it was Kyle, seeing as how I didn't think that Sunny knew how to do it.

As we got closer to the entrance of the caves, my stomach was overcome with butterflies at the thought of the task ahead of us. I didn't want to tell anyone what had transpired today; though I'm pretty sure no one did, especially Ian. He shouldn't have to, I realized, trying to come up with a plan of escape for him so that he didn't have to face everyone right as soon as we got there. If I was him, I would want some space as soon as we got there, not be questioned to death by everyone.

All too soon we were there, and I had come up with a plan that would be semi-successful if we were able to pull it off. Obviously those who came to help would notice right away that Wanda was missing, but I wanted to get Ian out of there before they noticed. As Jared rolled to a stop, I breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't appear to be followed; though we would still have to move quickly to get everything unloaded.

Jared undid his seatbelt and I whipped around to face the back of the van and the black mass of person that I knew was Ian back there.

"We're going to get out; you hop up here and get inside as quickly as possible. Go the long route and go straight to your room and no one should follow you," I addressed him and though he didn't respond, I knew that he understood. If he was smart, he would follow my plan.

Without saying anything else, I opened my door and leapt to the ground, only to be just about bowled over by a large body who squeezed me tight. I knew by the distinct smell of the person that it was Jamie.

"Hi baby," I said to him, giving him a big hug back. "Did you miss your big sister or something?" I teased and he laughed before pulling away to look at me.

I tried to avert my eyes in time, but clearly I wasn't fast enough because his hand cupped my chin and tried to get me to face him. I wondered when his hand had gotten so big, as it had never been so before. I quickly remembered the time when his small hand would fit in mine.

"Mel? Have you been crying?" he asked me and I shook my head, walking towards the back of the van where Jeb and Jared were pulling open the doors.

Once they were open and I saw that Ian wasn't back there anymore, I felt a little better that at least he had listened to me after all and gotten the hell out of here.

"No Jamie, I haven't been; I'm fine," I told him, grabbing a hold of three boxes stacked on top of each other and tried to carry them all inside.

Jamie grabbed the top one and followed me in until I dropped them on the ground just in front of where Brandt and Aaron were waiting to take it to the storage caves.

"Mel seriously. Why does it look like you've been crying?" he asked again and I internally cursed both his ability to observe people really well; and his curiosity.

"Jamie, it's nothing. I'm just really happy to be back home is all," I told him, lying, but it was necessary at the moment. As far as I knew no one had realized that Wanda was missing yet and I intended to keep it that way for the time being.

I made my way back outside with Jamie trailing behind me like a little lost puppy dog and I passed Jared who gave me a searching gaze before nodding and moving on. During that silent conversation he knew that nobody knew about Wanda at this time.

Jeb, Jared, Kyle, Sunny, Jamie and I all unloaded the van in record time and moved on to the car and before we knew it everything was out of them and in the caves where Aaron, Brandt and a few more people that they had recruited to help were moving everything to either the kitchens or to storage.

"Well, that's the last of it," Jared announced, wiping a little bit of sweat from his forehead with the shirt that he had taken off.

Even in a situation like the one that we were currently in, I still found his sweaty, well toned body to be incredibly sexy and I wanted to jump him right that second. I shook my head trying to get the thought out of my mind especially since there were other more pressing matters at hand.

"Holy potatoes, do you know what I just realized?" Jeb addressed all of us still standing around the entrance and I shrugged my shoulders, as did a few other people.

"Where are Ian and Wanda?" he finally asked and the four of us who knew looked away from Jamie and Jeb who were now very curious.

"They just ran ahead," I lied to them, staring at a particular mound of red dirt and trying to find it extremely fascinating; anything to avoid the conversation that was about to happen. "They ah, had a long and tricky day so we decided to let them rest a little more."

"Funny that I didn't see either one of them get out of the van or the car," Jamie said and I could feel his eyes boring into the top of my head.

"Yeah," I responded lamely.

There was a really awkward silence that followed until Kyle forced himself to cough in an effort to break it.

"Maybe we should all head inside," he offered and I nodded my head.

"You guys, cut the crap," I looked up to see that Jamie was furious now and I felt horrible and completely responsible for it. "Something happened, didn't it? Didn't it?"

"Where are Ian and Wanda," Jeb replied, a little too calmly, I thought.

"Ian is here," Sunny finally spoke up and I was surprised that it was her that finally relented. "We need to tell you something," she confessed. "But not here, out in the open; inside somewhere."

"How about Jared and I take the vehicles back and you two meet us in the kitchens and we'll tell you about the raid," Kyle offered and I shook my head at the same time as Sunny.

"You mean you'll tell us what happened to Ian and Wanda?" Jamie challenged and I knew that he was really mad at us by the harsh tone that he was using.

Kyle sighed before nodding his head, saying nothing more but just turning towards the car.

"Jared no," I said to him before quickly closing the distance between us and wrapping my hands around his bare middle. "I don't want you to go out. What if they're out there? What if something happens?"

"Mel I will be fine," he tried to reassure me and gave me a quick hug before extracting my limbs from around him. "I promise that I will always come back to you."

I didn't respond, I just crashed my lips to his and he eagerly responded. After a considerable amount of time; meaning we ran out of air supply, we broke apart and he walked to the van, getting in and starting it up.

I looked over and noticed Sunny clinging to Kyle, so I went and touched her shoulder. Instantly, she melted away from Kyle's embrace and held on to me instead while he ran to the car, following Jared out into the desert.

"Well, shall we?" I motioned towards the door with my free hand that wasn't hugging Sunny back and we all stepped inside. Every step we took got us closer to the kitchens, and closer to facing the reality of the situation; that Wanda really was gone.

**Ian POV**

Crouching in the back of the van listening to Mel have her little break down nearly did it in for me as well. I wanted nothing more than to be alone to show my true feelings and emotions on the subject, but it was looking more and more like it wasn't going to happen.

Finally Jared started moving the car and we started on our way, but that was when I started to panic a little more. What would they do or say once we got back to the caves? They would surely notice when I got out of the van without Wanda, and I wasn't sure that I was ready to answer any of their endless questions; I wasn't even ready to accept that this situation was real.

Just as I was planning my speech to hopefully convince them that I wasn't needed to unload the van so I could get away, Mel turned around and told me her little plan. I nodded to myself. It wasn't the best plan in the world and it had a few holes in it, but I could definitely make it work. I had to.

I heard Mel and Jared open up their doors and the sound of Jamie's voice was audible through the walls in the van. I knew that I only had mere moments before they would open up the back door and see me sitting there alone, so I quickly and quietly leapt over the mounds of supplies between myself and the door that I needed to go through to get out of there. In mere seconds, I had succeeded in getting myself out of the van and I tore off running towards my room without a second glance back.

Luckily I met no one on my way to the room and once I arrived, I slid open the red door and slammed it back into place, not caring anymore if I made a loud noise; everyone would be headed to the kitchens anyways to see what we had brought back.

I punched the door in anger at myself; the anger that was just now starting to rear its ugly head at the fact that I had let everyone down by not bringing a member of the family back. I closed my eyes before turning around to face the room, which I knew was still exactly the same way that we had left it.

I took three deep breaths before opening my eyes and taking in my surroundings. As I had predicted, the room was the same; almost as if it had been preserved that way for a reason. The clothes that Wanda had thrown on the floor after not deciding to pack them were still in their crumpled heap; I remembered laughing at her lying on the bed as she did that. All of the shampoo and conditioner and lotions that she used were still in their neat little line on one of the shelves that I insisted she used for them.

The sheets on the bed were still rumpled and messy as neither of us cared much for making beds, a trait about Wanda that I never understood as everything else she did had to be exact but she didn't care for making beds. I bet that if I went over and laid down on the bed it would still smell exactly like her.

I glanced over at the makeshift mirror that I had erected out of shards of broken mirrors from the ones in the fields and swore that I could see her reflection in them as she brushed her hair every morning. My eyes fell to the shelf on the wall that I had recently added and noticed her brush was lying on it; she must have forgotten to pack it.

I crossed the room, avoiding anything that was on the floor until I was holding that hairbrush in my hands. After turning it around a few times I plucked a strand of golden hair from it and held it up to inspect it.

Sure, it wasn't really Wanda's hair or her real body for that matter, but I couldn't think of any other body that she would fit as perfectly as Pet's. I could love her in any body, but I had grown attached to this one because she wore it so well and I was used to it. I was very attracted to Wanda the soul, but I realized that the body that she wore held a piece of my heart as well; I wanted to marry her after all. I replaced the brush back on the shelf, but held on to that piece of hair like it was a lifeline, sinking down on my knees to the dirt floor.

I couldn't stop the question from entering my head and it haunted me for a few moments while I thought of a response,

"_Did I really want to marry Wanda the small silver soul, or Wanda Pet's body as Wanda?"_

I ran my hands over my face in frustration; I should not have even considered this at all. Of course I love Wanda the soul, but if she were still in that form, would I want to marry her? She wouldn't be able to talk or walk or hold my hand or kiss me. At least that's what I imagined would happen we had never really gotten around to talking about that kind of thing much.

I did; I do still love Wanda the soul. She is the one with all the thoughts and action and funny little traits that make her who she really is. I hated myself for even thinking of the other option, in a way it felt like I was cheating on my Wanda or something.

Reaching down into my pocket, I pulled out the little blue box that seemed to always live there. I pinched the lid between my fingers and opened it up, looking down at my mother's ring; the very same one that I never had gotten the chance to give to Wanda. It was a waste now. I should have asked her back when Kyle really wanted me to at the Grand Canyon. I should have done it the night that I read that poem to her in the hotel room. There were a million times that I should have asked her; but I didn't. It was too late and I would never get the chance to now. She was gone and wasn't coming back.

The tears made their appearance then at that revelation as I quickly snapped the box shut and threw it blindly across the room, barely hearing it hit the wall and bounce onto the floor somewhere. I pulled my knees up, wrapped my arms around them and put my head down, finally succumbing to the knowledge that there was no way that I would ever get Wanda back.

The only person that I had ever loved on this planet was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. I cried because she betrayed me. I mourned for her, hoping that she was in a better place at least and hadn't been killed. I cried because I was so mad a Pet or whoever that lied to me all this time. I cried until I thought there was nothing left and then I would pick my head back up and see her shirt or something and it would start all over again.

**Mel POV**

Sunny and I sat next to each other in the long booth; a place that Jamie had chosen so that we would all fit around it comfortable. Nobody was talking just yet, we were waiting for Jared and Kyle to get back and that could be awhile, making for a very tense environment. After a long while Jeb began to whistle and about a minute later Doc came running into the room, completely breathless.

"I heard that everyone was back but Aaron had to wake me up or else I would have been here sooner. Where is everybody?" he asked as he slid into the seat beside Jamie.

"Kyle and Jared will be back momentarily and we're waiting to find out where exactly Ian and Wanda are," Jeb explained before resuming his whistling.

"Oh," was the only response that Doc could come up with.

For at least the next twenty minutes we all sat there, silent enough to hear an ant sneeze. Sunny was constantly looking towards the door awaiting the very millisecond that Kyle walked through it and she was a little jumpy at every noise that was made; which was mostly the reason that I made her sit in the booth first so that I could trap her in there.

Jeb continued his whistling, which didn't help with the tense atmosphere one bit. I was trying to avoid Jamie's glare, as I knew that he was very angry with us and he didn't even know the real reason why he should be angry. Doc rested his head on his hand for a second and then the sound of his snoring echoed through the cave, rivalling Jeb's whistles.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Jared and Kyle walked through the door and I heard Sunny let out an audible sigh of relief. They both strode over to the table with matching grimaces on their face. I started to stand to let Kyle in beside Sunny, but he just shook his head and leapt up onto the table instead, walking across it to sit beside her. The feeling of the table being jarred woke Doc from his slumber as Jared sat beside me, pulling my body onto his lap.

A few seconds of silence passed before Jamie was the first to speak.

"What happened to Wanda and Ian?"

He was straight to the point, frank, whatever you wanted to call it and wanted an answer right then and there, but none of us were willing to give it to him. Kyle shook his head and Sunny buried hers in his shoulder. I looked up at Jared who nodded and cleared his throat.

"We were raiding St. Mary's yesterday or earlier today, I suppose; I can't really keep track of the days. It was just before we came here either way,"

Jared launched into his explanation of what happened and I looked away from the three people sitting across from us to avoid the looks on their faces. I couldn't bear to see it at all; I could only imagine what they looked like.

As he finished talking, I finally met their eyes. Doc had his mouth covered by his hands and it was open wide behind them; eyes opened wide. Jeb had leaned back on the seat somewhere during the explanation and crossed his arms across his chest, looking almost contemplative. I saved Jamie for last because I really didn't want to see it. I took a deep breath before letting my eyes slide over to him from Jeb. The look of anger that adorned his face was nothing like I had ever seen on him before. I wasn't completely sure who exactly he was angry with; but I wanted to take the blame. Anything to wipe that look off of his face.

"Jamie," I whispered and his cold eyes locked with mine, making me tear up.

"Jamie, I'm so sorry," I said to him but he didn't respond to me.

"Where is Ian?"Jeb asked.

"In his room, I would imagine," Kyle answered. "At least, that would be the most logical place for him to be."

"I'm not sure that's incredibly wise though," Jeb said and I nodded my head. "All those memories of Wanda would be eating him alive."

"Let's go get him, I want to talk to him about this," Jamie said, starting to stand but we all shook our heads and Jeb clapped a hand on his shoulder, making him sit back down.

"That's not the best plan for this second. Give him a few days of hours to process what happened; I would imagine that he would still be in shock. Hell, I'm still in shock and I wasn't even there."

"I've got to get out of here. I can't really think straight right now. I'm sorry. It's not your fault though," he said before rushing from the room.

"How can he say that, it was totally your faults!" Jamie yelled at us and I closed my eyes.

"Jamie, we did all that we could..." Kyle started, but was interrupted.

"You promised! All of you promised to bring everyone back! You promised!"

"I know that we promised, kid. But if Pet was really in that body instead of Wanda, she would have waited to find another raid to get out of here on. I guess there was just the right opportunity on this one," Jared said to him.

"I don't believe it. I don't believe what she said to you at all though. I don't care what you think. It was Wanda that was with us this whole time, not Pet. It couldn't have been. Wanda never would have left us."

"But if she had no choice Jamie, she would have had to," Kyle tried to reason with him. "If the old soul was still in there, she might have had more power to push Wanda out of the way."

"Wanda was a fighter," Jamie stated, standing up as I opened my eyes. "And so am I. I'm going to fight to get her back, taking a page out of her book and standing up for what I believe in. I believe that you let Wanda go with those other souls. And now I bet that she'll never get the chance to come back to us."

He began to walk quickly from the room so I leapt out of Jared's embrace to try and stop him.

"Jamie, you weren't there though. She was very convincing with everything that she said. I don't want to believe it either, but a part of me does because..."

"Shut up, Mel. Just shut up. You let our sister walk away from us. You left her behind."

After Jamie uttered those words, he rand from the room and I watched him go with tears swimming in my eyes. Somehow, my legs gave out on me, but I felt strong arms hold me up. I was almost in a daze or a cloud behind my tears, though I knew that the same someone that had caught me hoisted my body up and was carrying me through the halls. I realized it was Jared once we reached our room and he shifted my weight over to one hand to open the door.

"Let me down," I told him, squirming in his arms until he relented.

As soon as the door was open, I ran through it and flung myself at the bed, allowing myself to shed the tears that I had held back all that time. Jamie was right. It was my entire fault that Wanda was gone. I should have believed that it really was her in there, and not the person she said that was. A part of me did believe her though.

I felt the bed give a little on my left as Jared lay down beside me, stoking a hand through my hair. Once most of the tears had been shed, my eyes began to droop. A warm body rested on top of my back and I smiled a little just knowing that Jared was there for me before sleep finally claimed me.

**I love the wonderful weather that we're having where I am. Finally summer is here!  
So yeah! What is everyone reading lately?  
I'm reading the Time Traveler's Wife and am about halfway through it and I'm LOVING it so far! It's a good read when you're lying on the beach! :)**

**Review! : )**


	24. Going Home?

**A/N: It sucks that summer's ending just as it's beginning. Weather-wise, I mean. *sighs* Anyways... : )**

**Thanks to native-soul, brokenfromthepast, Shannon17, HockeeChica, kimmitwilight, Wickedgal08, O'SheaFan, Wanderer O'shea, piccolover22, CullenNumber10, firedarkeyes, xxMarzbbyxx, mediate89, Harleygreen, NCISWarriorz and daisukezgirl13 for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Jamie POV**

I couldn't believe it; I refused to believe what I had just heard from Jared and everyone. Wanda was out there, she had to be or else what hope was there for everyone else?

I ran blindly through the halls, tripping every once in awhile just trying desperately to get away from my sister and everyone. I was so mad at them that they didn't even try to bring Wanda back after she talked to them. They just let her walk away. I was so convinced that it was still Wanda in there, and that made it worse knowing that they didn't even try.

In my mad dash, I knocked right into someone and heard a crash as whatever was in their hands hit the floor after the impact.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," I apologized half-heartedly and looked down to see that it was Lily that I had knocked into.

"It's okay Jamie," she said, brushing the hair out of her eyes and looking up. "I can just pick it... is everything alright?"

"I... it's fine Lily, sorry," I said to her, turning to run off again, but her hand cupped my arm with a surprising amount of strength that rooted me to the spot.

"Jamie I can tell by the look on your face that it's definitely not fine. Tell me," she quietly demanded and I shook my head.

"Okay, if you're not going to tell me then I'll ask the questions and you can tell me if I'm close or not." She thought for a second before speaking again. "Are they back from the raid yet?"

I nodded my head.

"Okay. Did they bring back enough supplies?" she asked and I nodded again. I watched as she bit her bottom lip as she tried to rack her brain to think of something else.

"Did everyone come back?"

I looked away immediately down the hall and saw Lily nod her head out of the corner of my eye. I desperately wanted to run from her and be by myself at this moment and I guessed that Lily knew that as her grip on my arm tightened ever so slightly.

"I see. Who was it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I answered her and she snorted.

"Jamie," Lily said softly, putting her free hand on my cheek and stroking it lightly in an effort to calm me a little bit. "I know that you want to run and hide, but trust me, that's not always the best thing to do. Who was it?"

I sighed and leaned into her hand a little bit, closing my eyes.

"It was Wanda," I eventually relented and heard her sharp intake of breath before I opened my eyes.

"I know, it's unexpected. I... I have to go," I made my break and ran down the hall away from Lily and the mess of clean laundry on the floor around her. I felt slightly guilty for not helping her to clean it up, but I needed to be by myself.

I ended up down in the games room before I realized that I didn't bring a lantern with me, so it was pitch dark as I stumbled around, eventually just giving up and collapsing onto the dirt floor. I lay on my back and closed my eyes to take in all that had happened.

I was so angry at my sister and everyone for not even trying to bring Wanda back. If I were there, I would have done everything in my power to stop whoever it was from taking her away from us; I would have sacrificed myself if I had needed to.

I thought about Ian and how he must have been dying on the inside for letting her go, but then it occurred to me that I had no idea what he thought about the situation; for all I knew he actually believed Wanda when she clearly lied to him. I needed to talk to him, but I decided to give him awhile.

But Mel... she was the one who was closest to Wanda, aside from Ian, but I still didn't get how she could do that. Surely someone out of that group would have had to have seen... but of course they didn't.

I was sure that there was no way that a soul or any remnant of a soul could have still been living in that body before we put Wanda into it. If there was a piece, it would have made itself known; no reasonable soul, according to Wanda, would have stayed around to see what would have happened. If anything, it would have ripped itself up or something, as I had heard that was what sometimes happened.

A part of me was also mad at Wanda for lying to Ian and everyone like she did. Surely there had to have been enough time for everyone to get out safely, but again, as I wasn't there, I had no idea what it was really like at that moment; but still.

I felt sleep taking over me because of the emotional roller coaster ride that I had been on all day today; first elation and happiness that everyone was back, and then anger and sadness that someone was missing. Before I drifted off into a restless sleep, I prayed that Wanda would remember us on her next planet, if they didn't already kill her or something.

**Wanda POV**

I was still quite panicked as I tried without success to get the metal cuff off of my arm. Eventually I gave up, after attacking it with a pair of scissors that I had found in a drawer near the bed several times as they didn't even make a scratch.

So instead I bided my time patiently in that little white room with its white sheets and white countertops. I thought about Ian without inadvertently thinking about him, in case they had developed some sort of wave where they could see what you were thinking about. So I would think about the times that we had together, just being sure to make the face unclear and fuzzy so that if they were looking, they would have no idea who it was.

After a few hours of looking at the walls, the door opened again and Red Fires entered with Sky hot on his tail. They both smiled at me before pulling chairs up to the bed and sitting in them.

"When can I leave here?" I asked, both anticipating and fearing the answer. I didn't want to seem too eager to get out of here, but at the same time I'm sure that anyone would want to leave.

"Very soon," Red Fires said in a calming voice, though it did little to soothe me. "We have contacted your mother, Cloud Spinner, and she is on her way to get you. Once she arrives, you may leave."

My heart literally dropped down into my feet as those words left his mouth.

I was sure that they were going to place some sort of tracker on me and do the whole following thing, but to contact Cloud Spinner was something different. I remembered that I was supposed to be excited that my 'mother' was coming, so I plastered a big smile on my face and looked over at them.

"Thank you so much; you have no idea what it means to me," I lied to them, smiling all the while.

"I figured that you would be happy to hear that news," Red Fires said to me, leaning back in his chair smiling almost triumphantly. "After being away from her for so long, I imagine that it will be a tearful reunion."

"Of course it will be!" I exclaimed. "I'm so excited to finally see her again! Did she say when exactly she will be able to get here?"

"Sky?" Red Fires looked over towards him; who I guessed was the one who actually made the call.

"She said that she'd be here as fast as she could get here, she was going to take the next shuttle in, but didn't know how long that would be. No longer than a few hours at the most," he reported almost dutifully, as if reciting it from memory.

"Thank you, Sky," I said to him softly and he smiled in return.

"Now I suppose that you have noticed the cuff that I have placed on your arm when you were sleeping," Red Fires started to say and I nodded, looking down at the piece on my arm, nodding. "I put that on there for our own safety. We will be tracking you in the same fashion that we are following your human 'friends' in their van. We only wish for you to be safe and if anything happens and the humans come back, we'll be able to track you down fairly quickly."

I felt like crying. Screaming. Anything to release the emotions I felt bottled up inside of me; hurt, anger, fear. Of course I couldn't do that with Red Fires and Sky in the room; heck I didn't even think I would be able to do any of it when I got to Pet's house with Cloud Spinner.

"I... thank you. I really appreciate all the things that you have done for me, I don't know if I'll ever be able to thank you," I choked out to them and Red Fires beamed.

"Just stay safe and that's enough thanks for us," he replied while Sky simply nodded.

It was silent in the room for a few minutes before I asked what I hoped would be my final question to them:

"Red Fires, sir, if you ever do catch these humans, what will you do to them?"

I had to know. I just had to.

"Well, if we get them in the near future, which is highly probable, we'll bring them in for an interrogation of sorts; just enough to scare some answers out of them. Then, depending on their age we'll offer them up for host bodies. If they're too old, we will have to dispose of them, I suppose," Red Fires answered thoughtfully.

"What age is too old to be considered for a host?"

"Well before the case of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer; I'm not sure if you've heard of them or not..."

"I believe I have," I said, trying not to sound too emotional at the fact that he was telling a story of my past life.

"Well like I said, before them we would offer up hosts of any age; mostly to extract information about the older ones, and then souls would sometimes live out their life term or skip to a younger human. But since then... well, the actual age hasn't been made official, they're still doing tests on it, but personally I'd say that anyone older than 17 or 18 is a bit risky. But then again; one never knows."

"_Jamie,"_ was the only thought in my head. He was almost too old for Red Fires' cut off. If they captured him, then... I didn't want to think about it.

"How come you're asking?" Sky asked me and they both eyed me for an answer. I had to tread carefully here.

"I just want to know if there will ever be a chance of running into their bodies later on. I mean, I still get chills just thinking about my time with them," I lied, crossing my fingers that they believed it as I personally would not have.

For added effect, I had goose bumps up my arms, but they were from the thought of Ian being discarded like nothing; they didn't need to know that though.

"If the majority of the humans that you were with were older adults, then I would say that there would be a slim chance of you ever seeing their faces again. Bt then again, you could always write up a report requesting to stay away from them; this is a special circumstance after all, and I'm sure they would make necessary adjustments," he smiled at me in what I was sure was meant to be a comforting way, but it just gave me the heebie jeebies.

"I'd better get downstairs," Sky sad and jumped out of his chair. "Cloud Spinner will be here soon and I need to meet her."

He quickly left the room and I figured that Red Fires would follow, but he remained seated and silent, just looking at me.

"Yes?" I asked hesitantly, not sure what he was doing.

"I just want to be sure that you're going to be all right," he said and I nodded.

"I'll be fine. I'll be at home and nothing will be able to happen to me with this on my arm," I gestured towards the cuff of my arm.

"I meant emotionally, Pet."

I frowned at him, sure that I had given him the name that I had used that one day in the Healer's office; Earth Dancing Wind. I opened my mouth to protest or question it or something; I wasn't really sure what I was going to say, but he held up a hand that silenced me anyways.

"I know that you gave me a fake name; I figured it out when we talked to Cloud Spinner. It was probably another thing that the humans made you do; adopt a whole other name and everything. I commend you on giving me that name, but you know that you don't have to hide now that you're back in society."

I was speechless, and all I could do was nod as I didn't know what else to say to him. I guess that story would work if anyone asked me any future questions or anything but most of all I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of the whole name thing before. At least it didn't lead to an inquiry or anything; that I could be grateful for.

Just then something in Red Fires' bag on the floor beside him beeped and he smiled at me while standing.

"Cloud Spinner is here," he announced, grabbing the bag off the floor. "I just need to go down and speak with her for a minute and then she'll be free to come up here."

"How much longer until I can leave?" I asked.

"Not much," he answered, opening the door. "I would imagine that you could leave whenever she decided that she was ready to take you home. But she'll also be anxious to get you home, so very soon."

With those parting words, he stepped into the hall and closed the door. Within a few seconds there was the unmistakable sound of a key turning in the lock and I rolled my eyes at the fact that they had just locked me inside the room; like I was really going to go anywhere. I could also spot the shadows of two people standing outside the door; apparently I also needed guards too.

I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself for Cloud Spinner's arrival. I didn't know whether to be excited about seeing her again, or to just smile when she walked into the room; it was a tough choice. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember much of Pet's real memories of her mother, so I didn't know.

All I wanted was Ian to walk through the door, hold me in his arms and tell me that everything would be okay. I really hoped that he wasn't suffering too badly; but I knew in my heart that I might have lost him forever after saying something like that to him. That was his greatest fear, after all. He'd always said that he'd been waiting all that time for me, and he was going to do anything to hold onto me; and with a few simple words I had ripped all his happiness away from him.

"_I win the award for the worst soul...friend...whatever I was to Ian,"_ I thought to myself, shaking my head.

I then pulled my knees up to my chest and dropped my head down into my hands. I had just realized that we had never had that discussion about what we were to each other; just one more thing that I had managed to screw up in both of our lives. I felt even more horrible than I thought was possible.

I had my moment and was interrupted when I heard voices in the hall outside my door. I quickly straightened my legs out and lay my head back down on the pillow, closing my eyes. I tried to make it look like I was sleeping, but in reality my heart was thumping so fast that I wouldn't have doubted if anyone in the hall were able to hear it.

I thought of Ian and his smell and the way that his strong arms would wrap around me, making me feel absolutely safe and secure in the world, and it helped to calm me down a little bit. Before I could think of anything else about him that might get me to relax even more, the door to my room opened.

I was too afraid of the fact that once I opened my eyes to see the people in my room that my life was going to change forever. Once I saw Cloud Spinner in the room, I knew that there was next to no way that I could get back to Ian and everyone now. I could hear them softly calling my name, but I pretended to sleep.

Instead of these people going away, I heard the scrape of a chair as it was pulled up to my bed beside me and soft hands held my right hand in theirs. The scent of perfume wafted over to me and from Pet's memories, I deduced that it was Cloud Spinner that must have been sitting there and holding my hand.

"Pet, honey, I know that this had been a hard time for you but if you're just open your eyes, we could get out of here and go back home. I really missed you while you were gone; I don't think you have any idea. I just want you safe and back at home," Cloud Spinner began to talk to me and I listened.

I would open my eyes, I just needed a moment to adjust to the finality of the fact that my life in the caves was ending. I knew that as soon as I left this medical building, there would be no way for them to trace me to wherever I was going, unless they were able to get a hold of Red Fires' handheld computer thing that tracked my every move.

"Please open your eyes; I know that you're sleepy and tired, but you can have plenty of time for that when we get home honey. The faster you wake up, the faster we can go home."

I inhaled deeply once before squeezing my eyes tight and finally opening them. I was met by the sight of an older woman clutching my right hand with both of hers; like I had predicted. She was leaned over my bed close to me and a huge smile broke out on her face once she realized that I was looking up at her.

"Oh Pet," Cloud Spinner cried out before she released my hand and flung her arms around me instead.

I tentatively wrapped an arm around her and awkwardly patted her head as I could both hear and feel her start to sob into my shoulder. She eventually extracted herself from me and sat back, wiping at the tears on her face with the backs of her hands.

"I'm so glad that you're safe," she breathed, touching my cheek gently. I looked down, knowing that I should say something to the woman who believed that she was my mother, but I just couldn't bring myself to just yet.

"Um, excuse me? Sir?" Cloud Spinner had turned around to look at Red Fires, who was standing against the wall near the door looking at his stupid handheld device.

"Hm? Oh, sorry," he said, putting it away in his little bag and pushing off the wall to walk over to us.

"I see that you're awake now," he stated and I nodded. "Oh come now, don't be shy just because your mother's here."

I shrugged.

"It's all right," Cloud Spinner spoke for me, smiling gently in my direction. "She's just tired is all. Can we go home any time soon?"

Red Fires began nodding eagerly and smiled at the two of us.

"Anytime you're ready is fine," he answered and looked almost proud of himself for whatever reason.

"Does the cuff have to come with us?" Cloud Spinner asked and I sighed. There was no way that he was going to let me leave without it; I think that she knew that but it was worth a shot anyways.

"Unfortunately yes it does; but just remember; it's only for her safety. We don't want a repeat of what happened to her now do we?"

Red Fires looked quite pointedly at me and I shook my head like the good little soul that I was supposed to be.

"It can't be busted open, should you be thinking of taking it off either," he said with a wink.

Cloud Spinner sighed. "Is there a date that she can have it off by? It's quite hideous and it's her senior year at school and everything; she's got graduation and prom and the like and I don't know how we can hide that so well."

I felt a sob choke in my throat as she so calmly mentioned the events that I had no desire to go to at all. My decision as to whether I went or not would be totally different if I had Ian to go with; but then again if he were living out in the world like the rest of the hosts and souls we wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with. We never would have met at all.

"_Stop it, Wanda,"_ I chastised myself. _"You're never going to get out of this mess the longer you sit there and mope around like this. You can't keep thinking about this. You..."_

My thoughts were interrupted by my 'mother' as she turned to me and had evidently asked me a question; one that I had missed due to my internal ranting. I smiled up at her and shrugged my shoulders, hoping that would suffice as an answer.

"You're not sure if you want to leave here?" she asked in response to my bogus answer.

Apparently it didn't cut it.

I shook my head and then nodded, but she looked even more confused. I sighed, contemplating whether or not I wanted to speak to her just yet, but Red Fires saved me.

"I think she's trying to say 'no' she didn't mean that, but 'yes' she wants to leave here and go home. Am I correct?"

I nodded and Cloud Spinner absolutely beamed at me. She then pushed her chair away as she stood up and extended a hand towards me. I hesitated for a moment before deciding that I might as well take it; she was my only ticket out of this place.

She helped me down off the bed and I tried to straighten my clothes, but there was no hope for them; I had been lying in that bed for too long that it would take a ridiculous amount of ironing to get the wrinkles out. I noticed that Cloud Spinner appropriately wrinkled her nose at the sight of me, but then she smiled anyways. I got the feeling that she was hardly ever unhappy.

"I'm sorry Pet; in my haste to get here I completely forgot about bringing you an extra set of clothes to wear. I'm afraid you'll have to travel in those ones for a little longer until we get home."

I shrugged and gave her a small smile to let her know that it was okay. I figured that as soon as she had gotten the word that I was in the healing facility and safe, she must have jumped on the first shuttle down here.

"_You mean when she had gotten the word that _Pet_ was down here," _I reminded myself.

Cloud Spinner took my hand and led me from the room as we followed Red Fires down the hall. I knew from Pet's memories that she was a very over protective mother, and I instinctively knew that it was going to get worse because she had already lost me once. Pet. Had lost Pet once. She was going to do everything she could to keep her in her sight, and right then, I wasn't going to fight her.

Pet was a little defiant when it came to her mother's over protectiveness and I knew that she liked to fight her on it; I just didn't have the heart to do anything about it just then. When we got back to Seattle I vowed to try and get her off my back a little bit.

Before I knew it, we were down at the registration desk and Cloud Spinner was signing me out of there. Just a few more minutes and I would be free; in a figurative way.

"Well, I believe that it's all in order then," Red Fires said, coming over to stand with me.

"Thank you," I whispered, as I figured that I should probably thank the man that 'saved' me from the humans.

"You're very welcome, Miss Pet," he said, winking at me. "Or Earth Dancing Wind, whichever you prefer."

"_The first one," _I thought. No need to get Cloud Spinner any more suspicious about anything.

"I'm just joking with you, Pet," he said in what seemed like a desperate measure to make small talk until I was ready to go. "Just remember that you're going to be safe as long as you keep the cuff on; but that shouldn't be a problem because it's indestructible. I'll be keeping tabs on you just to make sure that nothing happens, of course you already knew that, but still."

"Will you let us know if anything happens with the humans that you're still looking for?" Cloud Spinner asked from behind me. I jumped a little because I didn't know that she was there and she placed a hand on my shoulder in response.

"Sorry honey," she said and I nodded.

"If you would like to know the outcome of our search, we can be sure to let you know. I'll have Sky inform you at regular intervals, if you'd wish," Red Fires suggested, but Cloud Spinner shook her head.

"That won't be necessary; it would just bring me a little peace of mind to know that these horrible humans were put to justice or something for this act that they committed."

I was shocked. Evidently she knew what she was talking about.

They hashed it out for a moment while I waited patiently until Cloud Spinner interrupted and announced that we had a shuttle to catch.

"Right, sorry about that, ma'am. We'll be seeing you. Have a great trip back and I hope to hear from you that everything is going smoothly," he said and shook hands with the two of us.

Cloud Spinner put a hand on my back and guided me to the doors. I squinted my eyes in the bright sunshine once we were outside and we quickly got into one of the taxis that were waiting out front of the building.

The ride to the station was a little awkward. Neither of us knew what to say to each other, so it was just easier to sit there in silence. I vowed to not let our shuttle ride be the same; I would sleep on the way there. I sifted through Pet's memories that I had pushed away until this time looking for how she reacted during travelling. I sighed a bit when I discovered that she didn't sleep on shuttles as the noise was too much for her.

Once at the station, we had little time as our flight was already boarding. We raced through the station in record time to get on the shuttle and find our seats. I was lucky enough to have a window seat and once it had taken off, I propped my head against the window and closed my eyes, falling asleep.

I was woken up when I felt someone shaking me and I deduced that we were there as the shuttle was no longer moving. I silently followed Cloud Spinner through the terminal and outside to the parking garage where the car was.

Once we were inside, she broke the silence.

"You know, you're awfully quiet, Pet."

I sighed. I was going to have to talk to her sooner or later.

"I know, I'm sorry Mom. I'm just really tired; I haven't had a good night's sleep in awhile and it's catching up to me." At least I didn't lie about that part; I was dead tired.

"When we get back to the house, you can go on upstairs and have another nap if you'd like. Then later on I'll make you something to eat, you must be starving."

"I haven't really thought about it," I answered honestly and my stomach took that cue to grumble, making us both laugh.

We made more small talk the whole way back to the house. Once she pulled into the driveway, I immediately recognized the building from the memories that still floated around in this body. In all the months that Pet's body had been away, it hadn't changed at all.

"We're home," Cloud Spinner said to me before getting out of the car.

I wasn't though.

My home was miles from here hidden under the rocks in the desert.

One thing was for sure; this was not my home.

**So school's started! Yay! First class of the semester is tomorrow.  
I hope that everyone's had a good first week so far back at school!**

**I just spent a little over a week up at my cottage and I got home to a ton of reviews, you guys are awesome! : )**

**On another note, has anyone heard of Infinitus 2010 yet?  
It's a Harry Potter symposium that's being held in Orlando next July and I really want to go! Looks incredible!**

**So yes.  
Review! :)**


	25. Heart to Heart

**A/N: Yay for 400 reviews! I seriously have to thank you all for reading and reviewing my story! I never would have thought that my little story could have gotten so much response! Thank you so much! I send baskets of homemade cookies and cupcakes your way!!**

**Thanks to brokenfromthepast, Shannon17, siramad21, O'SheaFan, hanaharoo, TopKat90, anmapamo and PrincessSxySwan for your awesome reviews! Only 97 more till 500. 500!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

"Pet! It's getting dark out; and chilly too! I can see that the wind is picking up and I don't want you outside too much longer or we'll end up in the Healer's office again!"

"Yes Mom," I replied unenthusiastically, but it was enough to get her off my case as I heard the front door shut a few seconds later.

After only a week of being back in Pet's home (I refused to call it _my_ home because it wasn't) I was already going bonkers. Cloud Spinner was purposefully going out of her way to ensure my safety; almost to the point where it was completely over the top. I had spent more than a few hours sifting through Pet's memories, trying to recall if Cloud Spinner was that way before Pet disappeared from under her nose. I had concluded that she was protective of Pet before, just not to the extent of how she was acting with her 'back'.

The thing that I worried about the most was that the real Pet would return. I knew that technically, in every sense that this wasn't possible; after all I had been the one to make sure that she was sent off planet. There was still always a small chance that something had gone wrong and she hadn't made it off. In the worst possible scenario her tank could have been misplaced and put into the 'incoming' or 'receiving' pile and then inserted into someone's body. She could be wandering around somewhere on Earth and we would have no clue.

I groaned at the possibilities that would come of Pet actually staying on this planet; and they weren't good. Since I knew about Pet's past, I knew that she wouldn't hesitate at all to go to the nearest Seeker station and tell them about everything that had transpired before her recent insertion. After a quick search, they would find me. Of course, having the stupid cuff on my arm would make it that much easier.

The other likely thing that she could do would be to jump in a car or on a shuttle, and make her way to Seattle. One simple conversation with Cloud Spinner and they would have me under the knife and shipped off the planet faster than the time it would take to say "Arizona". Then a Seeker would be inserted into Pet's real body and...

I shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen next. The only thing that kept me sane with those thoughts was the knowledge that Pet couldn't have been on the planet, as none of those things, or anything else of the like, had happened.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and laid my head on top of them, wrapping my arms around my legs. I hated it in that house. I was constantly close to breaking down, though I tried to suppress the feeling until late at night when I knew that Cloud Spinner was long asleep.

Whenever I allowed myself to have one of my late-night 'pity parties' as I called them, I felt like such a wimp. After all, it was my fault that we were all in this mess. I had run through the events of that night over and over in my mind dozens of times, desperately trying to see if there was any possible way for me to have changed the situation. I was never able to find that 'golden opportunity' where I could have done something different to make it so that I could have stayed with Ian and everyone. Everything that day happened so fast that there was no other way. I just wanted my Ian back.

"Pet! Pet, the streetlights are on honey. I want you in the house, you know that."

I groaned and turned my head towards the front door where sure enough, Cloud Spinner was marching her way across the lawn towards me. I didn't want to go inside; I wanted to go back to Arizona and be in the caves where there was no mother watching over me like a hawk, and I didn't have a curfew. Of course, the only reason I had a curfew here was again, my fault. Mel, Jared and Jamie had chosen Pet's body for me.

"Come on honey, let's go inside," she said to me, gently stroking my hair. "I'll make you some of that hot chocolate that you like; it'll warm you up."

I reluctantly nodded my head and stood up from the curb that I was sitting on.

"That's a good girl, come on love."

Love.

That one simple term of endearment sliced through my heart and caused a wave of pain to shoot through me. Ian used to call me that. At once, my mind was flooded with images of Ian and I felt overwhelmed, almost on the verge of a breakdown. Cloud Spinner must have sense my distress about it, though she would never actually know what the cause of it would be, and she touched my arm.

With one simple touch, I was brought back to reality and it was just in time too; we were at the bottom of the front stairs. If she hadn't touched me, I would have fallen on my face due to lack of concentration. I followed her up the stairs and into the house and proceeded into the kitchen as she took the time to lock the three new locks on the door and arm the new security system.

I remembered the time when she had them all installed; the installation men though that she was insane or something, asking her several times if she was sure that she wanted it. Normally they installed home theatre systems or stereos, not security systems. They were almost unheard of because no one broke in or stole things anymore. Still, they got the job done and Cloud Spinner seemed pleased with the addition. It made me feel even more like I was being held in a jail though.

"Now, how about that hot chocolate, hm?" Cloud Spinner asked as she entered the kitchen, scratching her arm.

"Sure, that sounds good mom," I agreed. "I'm just going to go up and change into some pyjamas, alright?"

By this time she was already digging around in the fridge for the milk, so she just nodded her head.

I slowly made my way up the stairs and pushed open the door to Pet's room, switching on the light. I tried my best to ignore the very pink paint that adorned the walls, and the frills that were everywhere. That may have been Pet's thing, but it certainly wasn't mine. I quickly changed into my pyjamas and slid my feet into a pair of ugly pink fuzzy slippers. I shrugged, they were warm. I softly padded my way across the pink carpet and sat of the ledge of the big bay window that dominated one of the walls. As I leaned back onto a big pink pillow and tucked a white fleece blanket around me, my thoughts immediately turned to Ian, as they usually did.

I tiled my head back and rested it against the window behind me, closing my eyes. I wondered if they had made it back to the caves alright or not. If they didn't and were caught somehow, I could have just added that to my list of things that I had screwed up by coming to the planet.

My thoughts were interrupted again by Cloud Spinner, this time as she entered the room with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She handed one to me and I smiled in thanks before blowing on my drink to cool it down.

"Pet, I was wondering if we could have a talk," she started to say and I nodded, a little nervous as to what exactly she wanted to talk about.

"Have a seat," I offered to her, curling my legs underneath me to make room.

"Well I just wanted to start off saying that I'm so happy that we got you back, Pet. Those months that you were gone were the hardest of my life."

"_Oh please,"_ I thought to myself. "_You haven't been here forever, I know it. Besides you have no idea what 'hard' is."_

I quickly silenced my thoughts as I noticed that Cloud Spinner was looking over at me almost expectantly. Oops.

"Sorry, I was thinking of something else," I admitted, blushing.

"It's alright Pet," Cloud Spinner laughed. "I was just wondering if your hot chocolate was okay. I noticed that you haven't drunk any yet."

I looked down at my mug and resisted the overwhelming urge to roll my eyes at the pink marshmallows floating in it. I took a small sip and my eyes immediately began to water as I swallowed the scalding liquid.

"Hot?"

"Mmnhm," I replied and looked up to see her trying to hold in her laughter.

"It was hot!" I defended myself, though I couldn't help but to giggle at my pathetic self.

"I know honey. Just give it a few minutes," she suggested, putting her mug on the ledge beside her. I opted to hold mine, due to the warmth that it provided. Who knew that a small cup like that could give off so much heat?

"Um, I understand if you don't want to talk about it at all, but..." she trailed off and I noticed that she was fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"Yes?" I said, allowing the conversation to continue.

"Do you remember what it was like when you were with the... um... _humans_?" she whispered the last word and I sighed. I knew that this was going to be hard.

"I don't remember what a lot of it was like, to be honest. A lot of the time I was kept in the dark, and they never let me know where exactly we were. They fed me when it was time, but the meals weren't always the best, by what do you expect."

Cloud Spinner reached out and patted my covered leg before speaking.

"Were they nice to you?"

I internally snorted at her ignorance to the 'real world'. But then again, she had never interacted with anyone other than souls, and of course they were always nice to each other.

"Um, well not so much in the beginning. They started to get a bit better when they wanted something from me, like wanting me to do something. I just got used to it after awhile and went with it. At least it kept me alive," I mused.

I took a big gulp of my hot chocolate, smiling because it tasted amazing, and it was the right temperature too.

"This tastes incredible," I told her, but the smile she gave me in return didn't quite reach her eyes.

Instead, she sat up straighter and opened her arms wide for me. I recognized the action as the universal sign for a hug. I briefly contemplated ignoring it, but one look at Cloud Spinner's face, and seeing the tears glistening in her silver eyes made me change my mind. Quickly, I carefully set my mug down beside me and leaned into Cloud Spinner's waiting embrace.

I tried to suppress the yearning for Ian that I felt while being held in her arms, pushing it away for later when I was by myself. I knew that I wasn't getting any sleep that night. I would have to face all the memories that seemed to be resurfacing all at once that day.

"Pet. My baby. I'm so happy that you're home."

Cloud Spinner squeezed me tight one last time before pushing me away enough to cup my face in one of her hands.

"I feel like you're changed, Pet. You're a little different now."

"_Cue rapid heartbeat,"_ I thought, looking down and out the window. "_I hope she's not onto me."_

"I'm sorry Mom," I whispered.

"Don't be sorry baby. I know that it wasn't your fault. If anything it was mine."

I frowned at that.

"What makes you think it was your fault?" I asked, clearly not getting it.

"Honey, if I had been a better mother and watched out for you more, that never would have happened."

I shook my head at her and she let go of my face. "No, it wasn't your fault at all. It was a combination of factors. It was my fault as well."

"Pet..."

"Is that why you've been so overprotective lately?" I asked, fitting everything together.

"Well, I'm just taking precautionary measures to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"Mom," I sighed while giving her a smile. "It won't happen again. All your extra 'precautionary measure' are going to waste. Nothing will happen. Besides, I couldn't get to far anywyas with this thing on my arm."

I held up my cuffed wrist t prove my point and she gave me a tight lipped smile.

"I know, and I'm grateful for that, but it seems almost cruel to make you wear it. It's so ugly," she joked.

"It doesn't bother me too much," I told her, and it was half the truth anyways. "If I just pretend that it's a watch I can forget about it."

"I'm still sorry about it."

"Don't wo—orry," I told her, yawning halfway through my sentence.

"Finish your hot chocolate and get into bed; it's getting late," Cloud Spinner told me and I nodded, gulping down the last of my drink, wincing a bit as I realized how cold it had gotten.

I unravelled myself from the blanket and padded my way over to the bed, where Cloud Spinner had already turned down the comforter so it was ready for me to get in. Once I was in the big bed and settled, she tucked the pink down comforter around me and sat on the edge of the bed.

"I'm so glad that you're back, baby," she said to me and I gave her a weak smile. If Cloud Spinner spoke that phrase again I might have to strangle her. Instead, I played along.

"It's good to be back."

Without saying another word, Cloud Spinner rose from the bed, straightening it in the process before leaning in and kissing my forehead. She then grabbed both of our mugs and turned out the big overhead light so we were engulfed in darkness.

"Good night Pet, I love you."

"Night Mom, I love you too."

She gently shut the door and I was finally left in peace.

Having that talk with Cloud Spinner was interesting, I mused. At least I finally knew why she was being a little overbearing, so that was a good thing. I knew that there would be no convincing her to stop her efforts, but maybe she might be a little better after that. A part of me understood where she was coming from; I would be protective of my child if they had been taken away from me. But then, at the rate I was going I wouldn't ever have children. I closed my eyes visualizing my imaginary children.

_I smiled to myself once I saw them; two boys standing with their arms around each other. They both had dark brown, almost black hair and brilliant blue eyes. A taller man walked into the picture and stood behind the two brothers, clapping them each on the shoulder. The man bent down and whispered to the boys, who both grinned matching grins before they ran off. I continued to look at the spot that the boys, my sons, had just vacated until a pair of legs came into view and were getting closer. My eyes began to look up at the man; taking in his dark wash book cut jeans, his loose fitting black tee shirt, and his biceps that were subtly bulging out of his sleeves because his hands were in his pockets. I saw one hand reach out to me and touch my hand, so I finally looked up at his face. _

_My breathing came to a halt as I saw the smoldering look on Ian's face. Before I could even blink once though, his beautiful face became contorted into one of anger. I realized that he was opening his mouth to start yelling at me, but I didn't want to hear it._

"Oh!"

I sat up in bed with a start, placing a hand over my chest to try and calm my rapidly beating heart. I hadn't even realized that I'd fallen asleep until I woke myself up like that. I really disliked those kinds of dreams. They were fine and I really like them until Ian's face would start to look angry and then I almost considered them nightmares; as much as it pained me to used the words "Ian" and "nightmare" in the same sentence.

Still, it seemed that no matter what I did, I always ended up with bad dreams of Ian yelling at me. Then I would be afraid to fall back asleep, thus keeping me awake all night. Unfortunately, being awake with nothing to do caused me to start thinking, initiating these awful 'pit parties'.

I found it very upsetting that my subconscious kept on showing me and angry image of Ian all the time. I constantly hoped that he wasn't really feeling angry at me, though I knew in my heart that it was probably true. After all, he had every right to be mad at me. They all did. Once I thought about it, everything that had gone wrong had been my fault.

When Mel and I arrived in the caves, we had angered everyone and caused a lot of turmoil. Their peaceful community was essentially destroyed because of it. Even once the initial resentment had died and I was semi accepted into everyone's lives, I was still the reason for the fighting between Ian, Kyle and Jared. I had single handedly destroyed the relationship between Ian and Kyle because Ian fell in love with me. It was that very same reason that Jared and Ian fought as well.

After my insertion it calmed down a bit until the raid. I groaned and held my head in my hands. If I had just sided with Ian, everything could have been avoided. Ian and I would have been safe back in the caves simply biding our time until the others came back. My life would have been totally different, and I wouldn't have ever dreamed that I'd be sitting in a pink room, surrounded by pink pillows and blankets, looking up at a pink canopy. I would never have pretended to be someone that I wasn't.

I felt the tears begin to prick at my eyes and I willed them away in frustration. I was going to try my hardest not to cry over the situation anymore; it wasn't getting me anywhere and I was almost certain no one in the caves was crying over my absence. I looked down and tentatively touched the cuff on my arm as a new idea popped into my head. Instead of crying over everything, I was going to focus my efforts on getting the cuff off and leaving.

As much as it would hurt Cloud Spinner, I couldn't stay there for the rest of my life. If she knew the truth, then she would understand my need to leave. I remembered something then that I had been briefed on when I was coming to the planet in hibernation.

It was mentioned that some of the humans all over the world used to believe in God. I had learned all about the bible and everything that went along with it, absolutely everything. But what struck me the most about that lesson was the fact that people would pray to God. I decided to give it a shot. I needed a miracle, and I thought that maybe, just maybe He could help me out; or at least give me a little faith that this was going to work out in the end.

I quickly jumped out of bed, got down on my knees and prayed for what I needed the most; a way out of there. I really hoped that He had heard me.

**Jared POV**

One hundred and sixty-eight hours. One thousand and eighty minutes. Six hundred and four thousand, eight hundred and sixty seconds. Seven days. One week. How ever way you put it, it was a long time. It felt even longer when the one person that you loved the most was a wreck and couldn't speak more than a few words at any given time because she was so distraught. It sucked.

It also sucked when no one in the caves seemed to speak in more than a whisper around you; they wanted to protect you, it was said. I knew that they were all thinking the same thing though; we should have done more to prevent this. This was exactly what we had feared in the beginning of everything; Wanda would escape and go back to the people that she came from. I guessed it was true.

As I had watched over the span of one week, life in the caves deteriorated a huge amount. Everyone was silent and melancholic and no one spoke unless it was necessary. Wanda's name was almost like a taboo, no one wanted to be the one to say her name as if something horrible might happen to them if they did. Everyone slowly became fearful of each other, which was wrong but I didn't know what I could do about it. They seemed to be retreating to within themselves to protect everyone. It was stupid.

Mel spent most of her time alone in our room. I wished I could do something more for her, but she insisted that there wasn't anything. The most important thing that I could do was bring her food and make sure she ate it. A few times I had to force it down her throat. She had lost so much weight and it really wasn't healthy.

No one had seen or heard from Ian at all. Once Lily found out from Jamie what had happened she had tried to go into his room to help him, to return the comfort that he had provided for her after Wes had died. He wouldn't let her in though. According to Lily he growled at her to go away and it scared her off. I knew that everyone wanted to help him, but he was refusing it. We didn't go near his room.

Sometimes Jamie came in and sat with Mel but neither of them spoke. A lot of times Mel just held him tight to her, very reluctant to let her go. I sighed and looked over to where she was sleeping, glad that she was still with me after all of this. She could have done the complete opposite of accepting my presence with her and completely pushed me away. I was so thankful that she didn't. I decided to go and get breakfast for Mel; she didn't eat a lot the night before and I didn't want her to starve.

I left the caves and walked all the way to the kitchens. Everyone that I met gave me a sad smile and also walked a wide path around me. I retrieved some scrambled eggs for Mel that Lily and Trudy were making, but they didn't say anything to me either. I had a funny feeling that the silence would continue until Ian emerged from his room. Either that or we got Wanda back, and I didn't think that it was very likely any time soon.

When I got back in the room, Mel was awake and Jamie was with her. I walked in and placed the plate in front of Mel and saw her roll her eyes.

"Eat," I instructed her and she reluctantly picked up the fork.

"Yeah, Mel you look like you need it," Jamie piped up and I gave him a look in thanks. I settled myself down on the mattress behind Mel and rested my chin on her shoulder as she ate.

"Jared, will you tell Jamie that his plan is stupid and won't work?" Mel asked between bites of her egg and I frowned at him.

"Why won't it work? What's your plan?" I asked him and he took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling.

"Well. What if we went back to the hospital and staked it out? We might be able to find Wanda that way and get her back. Then everything would go back to normal and we'd stop being so depressed. You know that it's bad around here when Sharon has cancelled her classes," he tried to joke through the last bit, but I was shaking my head before he had even finished.

"Why not?" he asked, getting defensive so I held both of my hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I'm not trying to get on your bad side or anything, but it won't work."

"Why not?" he repeated and Mel tried to explain but I stopped her with a hand over her mouth.

"I'll tell him, but I need you to eat," I told her before removing my hand. Even though I was behind her, I could tell that she was glaring at me, but she stuck a forkful of food in her mouth anyways.

"It won't work because we'd be caught too. You don't understand Jamie. It wasn't like the hospital here where we can leave the van out front of the building with someone inside it when we go in the building. We had Sunny in the van when we went inside, but we still had her drive away and then come back. It was a major hospital, and truly in thinking about it, it was stupid of us to even try to use it. We should have just moved on," I tried to explain, but I knew that he would need more of a reason than that.

"So, we can do this Jared! You're always the one that everyone goes to to get a plan set in motion! You of all people should understand the necessity of getting Wanda back!"

"Jamie, I do understand, and I know that people do come to me for that, but realistically we can't! It wouldn't be worth losing someone else to do this. It's a good plan, just not for the particular place that we lost her in," I tried to reason with him, but clearly it wasn't working.

"What do you mean 'it wouldn't be worth it?'" Jamie practically screamed at me so Mel had to jump in at that point.

"Cool it," she instructed him, pointing her dainty little finger in his direction. "And there's no sense you getting mad over this either," she added to me and I nodded.

"Jamie, there's not a good chance of Wanda being there right now anyways," she began to explain to him and we saw that he was going to open his mouth to argue back, but she silenced him with a glare. "Seriously. They caught a fellow soul who was hanging around with other humans, they're going to detain her, yes, but seriously what are the odds of her actually still being in that body, let alone at the hospital?"

No one had an answer for that.

"They would have taken her out for sure. Wanda's a horrible liar. I wouldn't doubt it if she was on her way to her next planet now anyways, as much as it pains me to say that."

"There's got to be a way though," Jamie whispered and she shook her head.

"Jamie, I've been lying here in this bed for the last week thinking about nothing but this situation. Trust me, I've gone through every method off getting her back and none of them are likely to work out at all; for us or for Wanda."

The room was quiet while we all digested that.

"Shouldn't we have a meeting about this or something? I mean, discuss it with everyone in the caves to see if we can't do anything as a whole group?" Jamie asked, clearly grasping at straws by that point.

Mel and I both shook our heads at the same time.

"Wanda's name is like cursed around here lately," I said and he rolled his eyes.

"Only because they don't know what really happened to her. They're scared of what may happen, yes, but mostly they don't know if this has caused the Seekers to spy on us or something. They don't want to make too much noise. They think that's how they got her, that you were too loud and they randomly grabbed someone."

"That's bullshit though. That's not what happened," I said, still not getting their logic.

"Jared, hush," Mel shushed me, leaning back into my chest.

"It still wouldn't be a bad idea to have a meeting with everyone," she mused. "I don't think that any of us are strong enough to recount exactly what happened, but it might help to put some of their fears to rest. Plus, we need to beef up security to make sure that no one is following us."

I sighed. "I guess you're right. But I definitely call dibs on neither you, Ian or I telling what happened. I would highly doubt it if Ian even came out of his room for anything except Wanda's return by this point."

"How is he doing?" Mel asked me and I shrugged.

"He won't come out. He won't let anyone in. I have no idea."

"I heard that Kyle's going to go in and check on him today. He's been leaving food just inside the door and it's kind of been eaten, but there's no telling what he'll actually look like," Jamie reported and I nodded.

"That's good. Kyle's brave enough to face the wrath of Ian for sure; God knows that he would have had to face it more time than he's cared to count in his life," Mel joked and I wrapped my arms around her. "I just really hope that Ian's going to be okay. I wish there was some way to help him."

"I know Mel, I wish so too," I whispered in her ear and kissed the side of her neck. I was going to need to talk to Kyle after he was done with Ian about everything too. I decided to give him a few hours to deal with Ian though.

**Red Fires' POV**

I looked down at the pulsing red dot on my handheld screen again and smiled to myself. The door to my office opened and Sky stuck his head inside.

"You wanted to see me boss?" he asked and I waved him in, still smiling.

I waited until Sky was sitting down before I wordlessly placed my computer down on my desk and slid it in his direction. As he leaned forwards to pick it up, I put my feet up on my desk and crossed my legs while putting my hands behind my head.

"Know what that is?" I asked him and he shook his head in confusion.

"That's our humans."

Sky almost dropped it in shock.

"A...are you sure?"

"Course I'm sure," I replied. "I've been watching that dot for the last few days. It's always come back to that address and stayed there for awhile. We've got them. We need to get out there as soon as we can to get them. I'll let you get organizing that."

"Great work then, Red Fires," he said to me, smiling.

"I know," I replied and closed my eyes, imagining the take down.

**I know that you wanted Ian's POV in this chapter, but once I got rolling this is how it turned out. Plus, I think that Wanda and Cloud Spinner needed to have a heart-to-heart.**

**But I can promise you that the next chapter is DOMINATED by Ian.**

**Review! : )**


	26. Confrontation

**Meh. It's only a day late. I'm going to try weekly updates from now on, since I'm back into more of a schedule now. : )**

**Thanks to PrincessSxySwan, xxMarzbbyxx, TopKat90, Shannon17, brokenfromthepast, hanaharoo, abbyroxursox, kimmitwilight, O'SheaFan, sunnyskye., mediate89 and Raineplz for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Kyle POV**

I walked by my brother's room – my old room, as it were, on the way down to the kitchens on the morning of our seventh day back from the raid and I sighed at the sight of both the doors shut. They hadn't opened at all unless I was sticking the plates of food I had been bringing him inside of it. I shuddered a bit, not wanting to know what he did when he had to use the washroom; or bathe for that matter. One thing was for sure though; an intervention with him was definitely required.

I went through the main room and into the kitchens and straight to the back where Lily was standing helping to make the food. When she finally noticed I was standing there, she looked up, but didn't meet my eyes.

"Your usual?" she whispered and I nodded, getting a little annoyed at how everyone was all hushy around us still.

"And I'll also need an Ian-sized portion in a few minutes as well," I told her, speaking at a normal volume, but my voice echoed loudly off the stone walls.

She nodded and wordlessly handed me a plate of eggs. I took it and turned around, quickly spotting Sunny in a booth by herself. I sat down beside her and she smiled at me.

"Way to make a ruckus," she teased me, bumping gently into my shoulder.

"Well if everyone around here wasn't so uptight," I replied, saying the last but a little louder on purpose.

"Kyle," Sunny hushed me and looked around. "Everyone's staring now."

I knew that she was probably bushing at the fact that the nearly full room was looking in our direction. I felt a little guilty at making her feel uncomfortable.

"Ah, let 'em stare," I told her and she tentatively bit into her eggs, making a little effort to ignore everyone around us. "Besides, I bet that I'll stir up a bigger ruckus when I go to see Ian this morning."

She seemed to think about it for a second before nodding to herself.

"Please be careful and don't get hurt," she pleaded with me and I shrugged. After a few moments of silence, she spoke again.

"Okay, don't do anything stupid around him either. You're going to have to practically walk on eggshells when you're near him. I don't want you getting hurt."

_"Yeah right,"_ I thought. _"I'm tired of everyone doing that to me, there is no way that I'm going to do it to him."_

At the same time though, I did want to make her happy, so I was going to try not to piss him off so that I didn't return to her with any bruises. Well, any visible ones at that. I didn't want to freak her out.

"Kyle?"

"Hm?" I looked at Sunny and realized that she was waiting for a response.

"Oh, yeah. I'll be careful. Promise."

"Good."

Just as she finished speaking, Jared walked; more like ran, into the room and directly to the back. I turned my head to say something, but he looked very distracted and didn't seem to see anyone in the room. A few minutes later, with a plate full of eggs in hand, he marched back out.

"He's in a hurry," I commented.

"Mmhm."

We finished our meal in silence and Sunny started pilling our dishes.

"I'll take these to the back, you go on ahead to Ian," she offered, but I shook my head.

"Sunny, it's okay, I can take care of my own dishes..." I started to protest, but she clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Kyle, it's fine; I've got this. You go deal with your brother. Come and find me when you're done."

"Where will you be?" I asked, standing up to let her out with our dishes.

She shrugged. "Probably in our room, since there's not much else to do with everyone staring and being weird around us," she whispered before turning towards the back of the kitchens.

I sighed, hating the fact that we had basically been made outcasts in our own home, but there was really nothing we could do about it. I smiled though, watching Sunny go back there and leaned back against the table we had just vacated, crossing my arms. I watched as she wordlessly placed the dishes into one of the bins, letting her hair fall in front of her face, hiding it from the world. As she started back towards me, I saw a questioning look on her face, so I held my hand out for her to take.

"Walk with me?" I asked and she nodded, taking my hand as I grabbed the plate of eggs for Ian.

Once we were far enough away from the kitchens and almost to the main room, she finally voiced what I knew she was thinking about.

"How come you were looking at me like that?"

I shrugged. "I don't really have a good answer for you," I admitted and she smiled. "You shouldn't hide your face though."

She smiled and squeezed my hand. All too soon we were standing outside the red door. The task behind it seemed ominous and almost foreboding and I kind of didn't want to go through with it, as much as it needed to be done.

"You ready for this?" Sunny whispered and I shook my head.

"To be honest, I'm a little scared at what's behind the door," I murmured and she smiled, releasing my hand and patting my arm.

"Be careful," she warned me before turning and head off in the direction of our room.

I sighed before stepping towards the door.

"Here goes nothing," I said to myself, knocking on the door.

As I had figured, he didn't answer, but I was only doing it as a formality anyways; a sort of heads up that I was coming in. I slid the red door aside, wincing at how loud it seemed in the quiet and deserted hall. I tentatively poked my head around it before stepping in to the room, quickly turning and closing the door back up before I dared to look around.

The first things that I spotted right before I tripped over them were the dishes of food still sitting by the door where I had left them. A lot of the plates of food were clearly untouched while on a few of them I noticed that nothing was missing except for the roll of bread.

"Oh my god," I mumbled to myself, quickly realizing that all he'd eaten in a week was three rolls.

I dared myself to look around the room and decided that it was an odd sight. Everything of Wanda's, or Pet, or whoever it was in that body's stuff was in an almost pristine condition; all the clothes that had been left behind were in their right spot on their shelves, along with all the little knick knacks.

Everything else was a complete disaster. Ian's clothes were strewn across the room, the mattresses were askew on the bed and one of them was tipping precariously on the edge of the other; it looked like it could fall at any moment.

The mirror that Ian had taken so much time to build for "Wanda", finding bits everywhere and carefully constructed it even through her protests about not needing one, was only half intact. Pieces of it were lying on the floor below it and some of the ones still remaining on the wall were cracked, leading into one point; the point at which he had evidently punched or hit it.

"_Okay, where the hell is he?"_ I thought, turning on the spot. I knew he wouldn't have left, and the room wasn't that large, so he was in there. Somewhere.

"Ian?" I called out, almost dreading seeing his appearance. "Ian, I know you're in here."

I heard a quick intake of break and a rustling before I saw the top of his head movie in behind the mattress. I headed over there and stopped right near Ian, unable to get any closer.

He was sitting on the ground with his back resting against the tipped mattress. His legs were drawn up and his forearms were resting on his knees. His head was bent forwards so all I could really see was his profile.

"Ian," I whispered and he kept on looking down, not responding to me.

I looked down at the floor around him to see what it was that he had spread out on the floor. Whatever it was, it was keeping me from getting any closer.

I saw that they were all rectangular and had images on them, but my eyesight must have been going as it was hard to see. I crouched down and picked one up, wincing as I realized that it was a picture of Wanda. I deduced that they all must have been. I started moving them out of the way, clearing a space for me to sit down. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Wanda's scrapbook that Mel had given her for her birthday was open in front of Ian. In the middle of both pages were two pictures; probably of Wanda. Beside the book was the blue box that I knew held Mom's ring.

Enough was enough. This wallowing he was clearly doing had to stop.

"Ian, I brought you some eggs. They're hot, and you need to eat something," I instructed him, putting the plate down and sliding it over closer to him. He mumbled something, but I wasn't asking him to repeat it, for I didn't hear.

"Ian, eat," I urged him and he spoke. That time, I heard him.

"She's gone."

"I know Ian, but you can still eat..."

"She's gone," he interrupted me a little louder this time.

"Believe me, I know Ian."

"She's gone!" he practically growled at me and I frowned. Something was definitely up.

"Ian..."

"Gone!"

As he yelled that single word his head snapped around in my direction and I finally got a good look at him.

I reminded myself of a chick as I took stock of him, noting all the emotions on his face. His eyes were full of pain, anger and sorrow and the way that he had snapped at me justified those feelings. Since he hadn't left the room and had evidently busted his mirror, he hadn't shaved in a week and just about had a full beard. There were no traces of the fun, loving, pain in the butt, asshat of a brother left on his face at all; it was like I was looking at a shell of him.

For about a minute I, Kyle O'Shea, was shocked into silence.

I recovered though.

"What the hell happened to you?"

**Ian POV**

My life was over.

I had nothing left to live for in this dark void that they called "life".

I knew that people would have been talking about this situation through the caves, and I didn't want to be a part of that. Someone had been bringing me meals, but I couldn't bring myself to eat anything. I might have eaten a roll or two, but only in the beginning of the week. After that, I couldn't have cared less about eating.

I had only ventured to the bathroom in the dead of night, when I knew that everyone was sleeping. I didn't bathe though; I didn't want to risk anyone coming in and finding me there. I probably reeked; not that anyone came in this room, so I didn't care.

After that first day when I had thrown all of my personal belongings around the room in my anger, I had collapsed onto the floor, completely spent. I slept there for a few days, only waking up for little bits of time and I was just angry with the world when I was awake. I guessed that my body was completely drained after the raid and then all the emotional drama that had happened. The morning of the seventh day that we had been back, I woke with the desire to see Wanda; it was like my anger had taken a backseat to this overwhelming urge.

I got up and searched around the room for Wanda's scrapbook, looking everywhere until I located it at the back of one of her shelves and pulled it out. At once, a bunch of loose picture fell out of it and scattered all over the floor. I bent over to pick them up and when I straightened myself upright again, I saw Wanda standing behind me in the mirror.

I whirled around, but she wasn't there. Of course she wasn't there. She was gone; gone from this planet and it was my entire fault.

"All my fault."

To my own surprise, on the last word I'd whispered, I had punched the mirror that had misled me. I stood there in shock for a minute just watching the broken shards fall to the ground around my feet. I guessed that I was cursed with bad luck for seven years. I was off to a good start though; losing Wanda was enough to hurt me for the rest of my life.

I took the photos over to the floor by the bed—or what was left of it after my fit of rage and sat down, looking at all of the pictures one by one. I gently placed them all around me and tried to ignore the now throbbing pain I felt in my knuckles. I deserved it. I deserved the physical pain and the possible bleeding on my hand. I chanced a glance down at my hand and saw that it was swollen and dripping blood. I just wiped it on my shirt and shook my head.

In my shaking, I noticed something blue out of the corner of my eye. I looked over in the corner of the room and saw a little blue box. My throat tightened a bit when I realized that it was the ring box that I had thrown when I had first come into the room. I reached over and grabbed it, holding it flat in my palm for a minute. I considered opening it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, just this physical reminder of the life that I had planned for the two of us was enough to make the tears start to prick at my eyes. I closed my hand around the small box and opened the book at the same time.

The first page I had opened it up to held two pictures of Wanda and me together. My emotional wounds had split open again just seeing a mere picture of us together; it was almost too much to handle. A part of me wanted to slam the book shut and burn it, but I couldn't; as sick as it was, I needed to see the face of the person who had betrayed me. It was just another reminder of something that I had screwed up.

The only picture on the left page was taken about a week after Wanda had permanently moved into my room. Someone; Mel, if I remembered correctly, had snuck into our room one morning and had taken the picture. In it, the two of us were sitting on the bed; Wanda was sitting between my legs with my arms wrapped around her waist and my head on her shoulder. She had woken up early that morning and was reading. In the picture we were both looking down at the book that was lying on the bed between her legs.

I remembered that she had just said something funny and we both had huge smiles on our faces. It was one of my favourite pictures of Wanda because it showed who she really was; she wasn't concerned with who was watching us, or even at the fact that she was still in her too-small pyjamas. She was happy and content. Mel had slipped me the photo a few days later so that it didn't bring too much attention to it, but Wanda was still a little embarrassed.

I felt saddened as I looked down at that picture, for it wasn't really Wanda I was looking at; she was already gone by that point. I hated myself for not realizing it sooner, I should have been able to pick up on something that would have alerted me to her absence, but I couldn't find anything. Even if I did have any sort of suspicion, there would have been no retrieving the real Wanda; we had just dumped that cryotank in the outgoing pile and left it there. There was no telling if it had actually been shipped off the planet or not. But the soul in that body had done a good job of deceiving me. It bided it's time well.

I tried to sedate my thoughts and look at the picture on the right hand page. It was another one taken without our knowledge. The two of us were standing in the games room right after a soccer match, in which my team had just won. I was all sweaty and gross, but Wanda had stood up from her spot with her arms out for a hug anyways. I had protested, but she had hugged me anyways, not caring about anything. The actual picture was taken after our embrace. I had pulled out of it a little to look at Wanda, pressing our foreheads together. My left hand had brushed some hair out of her face before cupping her cheek and she had leaned into my hand. Someone took the picture and then presented it to us anonymously a week later by slipping it under our door. Wanda had only half-heartedly complained about someone taking candid pictures of us, but seconds later had declared it as one of her favourites.

I closed my eyes and shook my head while leaning back on the precariously tipped mattress. I couldn't help but to feel my anger start to build again at the thought of me taking those pictures, and having those moments with someone who wasn't my Wanda; who wasn't the person I wanted by my side for the rest of my life. I opened my hand up again and looked down at the box that would have sealed my destiny. A part of me was resentful that I hadn't given it to her before all of this had happened, but then I remembered that it wasn't really Wanda out there in that body and I would have been marrying someone completely different.

I placed the ring on the floor beside the picture of us after the soccer game and sighed. Nothing in my life ever went right. I was cursed. It wasn't fair.

Just then, a knock came to the door and I groaned silently, hoping that whoever it was would just go away. Apparently I was hoping for too much as a few seconds later the door slid open and I heard footsteps enter the room. The only person that I could think of who would have been brave enough to actually come in was Kyle. Instead of just dropping off the plate of food like usual, I heard the footsteps continue.

I knew he was calling out to me, but I didn't want to answer; instead, I moved around, bringing my legs up and resting my arms on my knees, lowering my head and my gaze so that I was looking at the pictures in the book. I didn't want to face him directly. He would have heard my shuffling and made his way over to where I was. There was no point in trying to hide; he would find me and there was no point in prolonging the inevitable.

Sure enough, he made his way over to me and stopped, just at the edge of where the pictures of "Wanda" and I began. He mentioned bringing me something to eat, I wasn't hungry, but he still put the plate down and slid it over closer to me.

"She's gone," I said quietly, but he didn't hear me, instead he urged me to eat the food. I didn't want to.

"She's gone," I said it louder so that he would have heard me for sure, but he still continued his efforts to try and persuade me to eat whatever he had brought.

I repeated myself again a little louder, growing annoyed that he wasn't acknowledging me and what I was saying to him. Instead, he tried to sympathize with me, but I couldn't take it anymore, almost yelling my repeated phrase at him, and then actually yelling while turning my head to look at him so that he would actually get it. He seemed to be getting a good look at me and it was a good minute or two before he spoke again.

"What the hell happened to you?"

I turned my head away and shook my head. He knew what the hell happened; he was just stepping around the subject just like everyone else. It was making me crazy.

"Kyle, you don't get it. She's gone, she left me and there's nothing I can do."

"Bullshit I don't get it, Ian. Where the hell were you all that time after I lost Jodi. Don't you dare assume that I don't know what it feels like to lose the person you love; hell, I _still_ haven't gotten her back, but you don't see me wallowing alone in my room, do you?"

I bit my cheek, not in the mood to get in a fight with him. There was no point. Fighting wouldn't bring Wanda back. Nothing would bring her back.

"Eat it," he urged again, pushing the plate of eggs even closer to me, but I just shook my head.

"Damn it Ian, do I have to spoon feed you like I did when you were little?" I shook my head again. "Well then pick up the fork and do it yourself! I'm serious; you're going to get really sick if you don't eat."

"What do you care?" I mumbled and could almost feel the angry waves emanate off of him, but I also heard an intake of breath; at least he was making an effort to stay calm. I knew that this could escalate really quickly.

"What do I care? I care because you're not the only one that this is affecting. You wouldn't know though, because you don't leave this room. You're holed up in here like a caged animal. Jeez Ian, you have no idea."

"Kyle, I really don't think that anyone can know what's going on with me. Trust me; it's better for me to stay in her alone. There's no telling what might happen if I went out there," I tried to explain to him, but he interrupted me.

"Really? You're really going to go there?" He swore under his breath before continuing. "No one can know what's going on with you? That's a load of crap. Everyone's changed because of this, Ian. If you'd just leave this room and actually _talk_ to someone, you'd know what was happening."

I rolled my eyes but still took a forkful of eggs and shovelled them into my mouth. After I chewed I opened my mouth and showed him that it was empty.

"Happy?"

"Not really," he grumbled and I shrugged.

"I ate. You can go now."

"You know what Ian? I was coming into this room with a level head to try and talk to you and you're just being a big baby about this whole thing, hiding in here and pushing me away like this. No normal person would _want_ to go through something like this alone. Not even _I _did. I let you in. That's why I'm in here. I wouldn't normally subject myself to your abuse, but I _have_ to. Someone has to. We can't let you sit in here anymore. You're not the only one dealing with these feelings."

"You have NO idea what you're talking about!" I almost shouted, but tried to rein myself in. "No one else was as close to Wanda as I was, therefore, no one can feel the way that I do. You don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure that everyone's fine."

"You're the biggest idiot in the whole world Ian," he said, getting up off the floor and began pacing back and forth. I watched him walk around for a few solid minutes before he spoke again.

"How can you possibly think that you're the only one that can feel that way? What about Sunny? Wanda was the first one to even remotely be nice and try to comfort her. I _know_ for a fact that she's taking this hard. She knows that it could have just as easily been her. Or how about Lily and Trudy and them? They have been on Wanda's side since the beginning; they've got to be hurting. You've seem to have forgotten that Wanda was the glue that held the people in here together. It's like a different world out there now, Ian. I..." he shook his head, and paced before opening his mouth.

"How about Mel?"

I bit my lip at his simple statement; I had forgotten all about her. She would be having a hard time coming to grips with this as well. But then again, she was only feeling sisterly feelings, not one of a lover.

"Jamie, Jared, Doc, Jeb," he kept on rhyming off names of people and I was fed up.

"ENOUGH," I yelled at him but he ignored me.

"How could you be so selfish to think that you would be alone in this. Mind you, that doesn't surprise me at all. You always were selfish, weren't you?"

His words cut right through me; if I was nothing else, I wasn't selfish. And the only thing that I had allowed myself to feel a little bit of it over was Wanda herself. I wanted her to myself, no matter what the cost. And she was gone.

"I am NOT a selfish person!" I yelled again, standing up to face him this time. "Are you just TRYING to be an asshole here? Was that your whole plan? To come in here and rip me apart like this? Like I don't KNOW that this was all of my fault. I don't need you to come in and do this. I do it to myself enough."

"That's exactly WHY I came in here though! You think that I would willingly put myself up for this kind of abuse? I didn't want you to yell at me at all. If I wasn't trying so hard to calm myself right now, I'd punch you in the face for being the biggest dick for the last week and hiding in here like a girl!" I could hear his voice escalating in volume, but I didn't hold back.

"So why don't you? If that's what you really want to do, then do it."

I clenched my fists together in preparation to hold my ground if he decided to hit me. I deserved to feel that pain. Kyle's face scrunched up in anger and I saw him look me all over, probably taking in my appearance or something stupid like that. His eyes bugged out a bit and threw me off guard a little bit.

"What?" I spat out and he took a step forwards before stopping himself.

"You're bleeding."

"I know," I said simply and he frowned.

"You should clean that up or something..." his eyes darted over to the broken mirror as he put two and two together. "You just did that. How did no one hear you though?"

I shrugged. Like I cared.

"I'm not going to clean it up. I need it."

"What, are you some kind of sicko now? Is that what you're doing? Starving yourself and letting your hand bleed? Tell me what that is accomplishing? If you want people to feel sorry for you, that's already happening, you don't need to do more things to make them do that."

"GOD DAMNIT KYLE, SHE'S GONE! It's MY FAULT that she's gone!"

"I still don't get it," he admitted, crossing his arms and I growled in frustration, starting to pace myself.

"I deserve it. I deserve the pain and the suffering. It's just.... I need it, okay? You can leave now." I knew that my words were useless; he wouldn't leave until he was good and ready.

"I don't get it. Let someone in, Ian. Anyone. You don't need to do this to yourself; no matter what you think is right."

So he was resorting to begging now? This was certainly new. I didn't need it.

"I need that. I need to do this. I need to show everyone that I'm strong enough to cope with this on my own. I don't need someone else to cry over this, especially for me. It was all my fault anyways."

"How do you figure? It wasn't your fault at all."

"Yes it was," I said, looking down at the floor in front of me.

Looking down was my downfall, I realized as I barely heard the footsteps come towards me, but I sure felt what came next. I staggered back a few steps after Kyle's fist came in contact with my face, but stopped, afraid that I would step on the picture still all over the floor and ruin them. As much as I hated not knowing exactly who I was looking at in them, I didn't want them destroyed. Instead, I fell to my knees on the floor, really starting to feel the pain explode across my left cheek which had evidently taken the brunt of his hit.

I closed my eyes and held my now throbbing face in my hands; which really only increased the pain, as it pulled the broken skin across my knuckles tighter, probably making them bleed again. I felt overwhelmed and deserving of everything that life had thrown at me, literally in the case of Kyle's hit, or figuratively. It didn't matter though. Nothing I did would ever bring Wanda back to me.

I felt embarrassed, but I didn't care anymore as I started to sob into my hands. It was the first time that I had actually allowed myself to cry and grieve over losing Wanda. I felt Kyle's hand on my shoulder, but I cringed away from it; I didn't deserve anyone trying to help me with this, especially him. But Kyle was being Kyle and he persisted, touching my shoulder again and again after every time that I moved away from him until I felt both of his arms around me. I lost it then.

That simple act brought me back to when we were kids and Kyle would hold me like that when I had fallen, or hurt myself in some way. He always seemed to be there when I injured myself, funnily enough, but at the same time he was the first one to try and make me feel better. Whether it had been the time when I was three and tried out Kyle's old roller skates and fallen when had pushed me down the driveway, or when I was seven and had fallen out of the old tree house in our backyard, my big brother Kyle was there for me.

I found myself sobbing into his shoulder, and I eventually relinquished the hold I was placing on myself, trying not to succumb to his embrace and leaned back into him.

"It's okay, Ian. It will all be okay."

I shook my head on his shoulder and he patted my back gently. I used all of my energy to stop the tears from coming so that I could talk and explain myself.

"It won't be," I whispered to him, shaking my head again before lifting it off of his shoulder and wiping my eyes.

"God your face looks awful. I feel bad about that now; you were just making me so mad and frustrated before," he tried to apologize, but I shook my head.

"Don't apologize. I deserved it."

"No you didn't. That will probably be the only time you hear me saying that for hitting someone though," he joked and I tried to force a smile on my face, but it didn't work.

"Trust me, I did. It was all my..."

"Why do you think that? Stop saying that. Nothing you could have done would have prevented this. If you're worried about letting Wanda or Pet or whoever go; there was nothing _any_ of us could have done. It all happened too soon for any of us to react; well, other than how we did react anyways."

"But still, Kyle. It goes back farther than that. If I had been nicer, or had shown Wanda that I had loved her more then maybe she would have stayed here on this planet. She would have been stronger and tried to stay here, fighting off Pet, and we would have been together all that time. So yes, it it my fault for not loving her like I should have," I explained what was really on my mind and was a little afraid of Kyle's reaction. I internally braced myself for him to hit my other cheek.

"That's a stupid reason as well, you know. Jared never would have let you 'love her like you should have' as you put it. He would have killed you. And you know, I fully believe that Wanda did love you through everything and I bet that she would have put up a fight to stay with you, no matter what."

I looked at him and frowned for a second.

"Who are you and what have you done with Kyle?"

He rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Let's just say that Sunny's had a big effect on me as of late," he responded and I nodded. I was glad that he had finally come to terms with that situation in a way. They needed that.

"And I'm still sorry for hitting you like that," he apologized again and I shook my head.

"Don't worry about it. It's just another physical reminder that I need to prove that Wanda really is gone from my life; that I'm really going to be alone."

"Ian..."

"Kyle, it's fine. Your job is done. I'm kind of tired anyways."

He looked like he didn't want to leave and in a way I didn't want him to either, but he had to. I knew that as soon as he left the room that the caring big brother act would dissipate and he would go back to being the same jackass that he normally was. A part of me didn't want that to end, but it had to.

"Just go, Kyle. I'll be fine."

Even as I said those words, I didn't believe them. Neither did he, as he stood from the floor, shaking his head and making his way over to the door. When he reached the plates of food still lying there, he bent down and picked them up.

"You should really go and talk to someone and let them in, you know. I'm so not finished here, but if I stay I might have to hit you again," he admitted.

"I know."

"I'm serious though. Jared, Jamie, and especially Mel are all just as broken as you are. If no one else, you should go and see them. Lily would probably help you as well since you helped her after Wes was killed."

I shrugged and sat on a mattress as he slid the door out of the way.

"And I'm not bringing you any more food; if you're hungry, come and get it from the kitchens like everyone else."

With those final words, he stepped out into the hall and closed the door. I sat on the bed for a little while longer before getting up and rubbing my prickly face. I winced a bit as my hand ran over the sensitive skin on my cheek and I got up to look in the remaining mirror fragments at my reflection.

I really did look awful. Besides the obvious black and blue bruise on my cheek, the facial hair and bags under my eyes made me look about fifteen years older. In truth, I felt like I had aged that much in the one week without Wanda or whoever she was. Even if it wasn't her, the comfort that she had provided me with for over a month was irreplaceable. I mourned for her.

I sighed and looked around, spotting the plate of eggs on the floor. At the sight of it, my stomach gave an almost inhuman growl and I realized just how hungry I really was. I walked over and scooped up the plate, shovelling the cold, rubbery eggs into my mouth in huge heaps. All too soon it was empty and I felt my stomach stretch in pain as it had been deprived of food for too long. I was still a little hungry, but wasn't venturing out to get more. I knew I would have to, as Kyle made that clear, but I wasn't ready for it.

I looked down at the 'bed' that was a mess and quickly fixed it, lying down on my back and looked up at the ceiling. It was midmorning, probably afternoon judging by the colour of the sky and I couldn't help but let my thoughts drift to Wanda. I wanted here there and in my arms so that we could look up at the sky together. I seriously hoped that nothing bad had happened to my real Wanda. She meant the world to me, even if she wasn't physically with me.

**Okay.**

**So some of you have reviewed about them making The Host into a movie and I indeed did hear about it last Wed when the news broke... for those of you who haven't heard, they ARE going to make The Host into a movie!  
Stephenie will be working with Producers Nick Weschler and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, as well as writer Andrew Niccol on this project.**

**What are your thoughts on this now that the possibility that we talked about before is a reality? I mean, now that this is actually going to happen.**

**Review! : )**


	27. Turning Point

Yay for an actual weekly update! It's been awhile : P

**Thanks to australia427, xxMarzbbyxx, brokenfromthepast, Shannon17, kimmitwilight, Miss Marie Moon, hanaharoo, piccolover22, CaptureTheDream, 123xyz, RawSugarX23 anmapamo, mediate89, tonks-quinn57, HockeeChica, O'SheaFan and Harleygreen for your wonderful reviews! **

Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot. Wanda POV

Enough was enough; I had to get out of there. Cloud Spinner was slowly but surely driving me insane. After two weeks of endless pleading and badgering on my part, she had finally allowed me to go back to school. I wasn't exactly recepted very warmly; a lot of my peers stayed far away from me. I guessed that was understandable; I was the freaky girl who was "abducted by humans". Suddenly, Sharon and Maggie's coldness towards me didn't seem so bad.

Luckily for me, Pet was a straight "A" student, so they allowed me back into all the same classes she was in before, with no penalties. Apparently Pet was considering being a teacher or childcare worker or something, as she had enrolled in a co-op class, with her placement being in the senior preschool room of a daycare centre. So every afternoon, I went to Rolling Hills Child Care Centre where I met my host teacher Blooms in the Darkness and worked wit the kids. All of the children there had souls in them.

It sickened me to see an innocent child's body running around with a much older soul in it. Truthfully, these kids could have probably taken care of themselves, but it was still kind of frowned upon.

Mostly I would just clean and play with the children while I was there, and occasionally set out snack for them. Once I actually tried having what should have been an age appropriate conversation with one of the girls and received the biggest stink eye of my life. She then asked me if I was new to the planet and began to spread rumours about how low my intelligence was; which was exactly what I needed.

I wasn't too thrilled whenever I had to go there, but it was for school and I had to keep up the "goodie two shoes" thing to keep everyone happy. That in itself was tiring as well.

After a few more days of convincing Cloud Spinner that the humans weren't after me, she had allowed me to go to the local park. I had a time limit of 45 minutes though; 5-7 minutes to get there, roughly 30 minutes there, and 5-7 minutes back, and it couldn't be anywhere near dusk when I left or got back. She literally timed it to the second.

Not much happened when I was at the park, but it was just nice to get away from everything for a while. I spent a lot of my time there coming up with ways to get the cuff off of my wrist. I had a list of ideas, but hadn't actually put any to the test, as Cloud Spinner was still hovering a lot. She was to go on a business trip to Dubai the next weekend, and that was when I would put a dent in my list. Cloud Spinner was really fretting the trip and didn't want to leave me.

Fortunately for me, she couldn't bring me along on the trip, nor could she skip it without serious consequence. I still had a bit of work to do in order to get her to let me stay at the house alone, as she really wanted to get a sitter or someone to watch over me. She really was paranoid.

During one of my visits to the park, I was sitting on the swings trying to think of new ideas of how to get out of there when someone came to sit on the swing beside me. I glanced over to see that it was a little boy. I ignored him while he pumped his legs to gain a lot of height. I almost panicked because I though he might have been going too high, but then I remembered that the kid's parent would have stopped him. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the sight of him flying through the air.

My heart literally flew into my throat and I hoped that he didn't die; it would have been typical for that to happen around me. Just another thing that I could have inadvertently screwed up. I was up and running over to him before he had even hit the ground. Once he landed, he kind of stayed there for a minute and I was terrified that he had hurt something.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, looking around for the parent while crouching down.

I looked back down at him and was met by the biggest smile on his face.

"I'm fine, I do that all the time," he answered before hopping up and brushing the dust off of his jeans. I tilted my head up then to get a better look at him.

He had almost sandy blonde hair that looked as though it hadn't been cut in awhile as it was a bit shaggy. It was also in his eyes and I watched while he brushed it out of them. Blue eyes. This child had blue eyes, not silver ones. He hadn't been give over for insertion by his parents.

"_Not yet, at least"_ I reminded myself.

That explained his behaviour; no child with a soul in them would have jumped off a swing like that.

"Want to see me do it again?" he asked, his face lighting up with eagerness and excitement at his mastery of something.

"Sure," I agreed and he whooped with joy before racing back over to the swings.

I stood there and watched as he gained a lot of speed and height before calling out to me,

"You ready?"

I couldn't help but to smile as I nodded, bringing my arm up to shield my eyes from the sun so I could see him better. Sure enough, he jumped off and landed right beside me on the ground, picking himself up and beaming at me.

"Did you like that?"

"It was very cool," I told him and he nodded.

"I practise all the time. I like the park," he told me, looking over at the slide.

"I like it too. Where's your mom?" I asked, a little concerned that there was no one around for him.

"She's at home with my baby sister. She said that I could go ahead and come here and she'll come soon."

I thought about that for a minute before nodding.

"Do you want to swing with me? Nicely," I added, not exactly wanting him to fly off of it again.

"Sure! Oh. My Mom said that I should be nice to adults and int… intro? Tell them my name. I'm Tyler and I'm five years old."

I smiled at him as he said that and stuck out his little hand for me to shake.

"It's nice to meet you Tyler, I'm Pet," I said, shaking his hand.

"Yeah. Let's swing!" he cried while running over to them. I chuckled while following him and settling into the swing beside him.

"Hey Pet?"

"Yes Tyler?" I responded, looking down at him.

"You have silver eyes like the kids in my class at school. Mine are different," he observed and I nodded.

"You're right, but you know what? That makes you special. I like your eyes better," I told him and he beamed.

"I like them too. My Mommy says that they are beautiful."

"They are," I agreed, kicking at the dirt under the swing a little bit as he swung. I knew that I only had about 25, minutes left and I hadn't done much thinking, but being with Tyler made me forget about my situation.

"You're sad," he said simply and I felt his hands on my knees. I realized that he was standing in front of me.

"_Maybe not,"_ I thought.

"Why do you say that?" I asked him, looking down at him.

"You just look sad," he said, wrapping his arms around my legs and laying his head on my lap in a little hug.

"Does that make you feel better?" Tyler asked, his voice a little muffled by the fabric of my jeans.

"A little bit," I said, brushing my fingers through his hair. He gave my legs one last squeeze before letting go and standing up.

"Did someone take your toy? That makes me sad."

I bit back a giggle at his innocence, but shook my head.

"No, someone didn't take my toy. Though that would make me feel sad, but that's not it."

A calculating look crossed his face and his brow furrowed in thought.

"How come then?"

I couldn't burden this child with my drama and worries about my life. He was only five.

"Won't you tell me Pet?" he pleaded and I sighed.

"_Oh, what the heck,"_ I thought, deciding to give him the watered down, kid-friendly version.

"I just miss someone very much," I told him and he nodded.

"Was it your Mommy or Daddy?"

"No, Tyler. It was… a really good friend and I miss him."

"Did you used to kiss him?" he asked with a horrified look on his face. I just smiled in answer and he made a disgusted face.

"Well, why don't you go see him?"

I sighed. "Because Tyler, it's not that easy and he lives very far from here."

"Hm," he nodded. "Let's go sit on the whirler." I smiled and followed him over to it. We sat down and he looked up at me.

"But you're a big girl and you could probably go on one of those spaceships and blast off and see him right away! Tyler said, his eyes lighting up at the mention of the shuttle.

"I can't though. My Mommy won't let me," I told him and his face fell a little.

"Have you ever been on one?" I asked and he shook his head.

"No. My Mom said that when I'm a big kid we could go on one. I wish I could. Have you been on one?"

I nodded and his excitement returned as he then bombarded me with questions of what it was like. I answered them all and he kind of sat there in awe, taking it all in.

"Wow. I can't wait to go on one!"

"It's really fun," I added, smiling at him.

"So how come your Mom won't let you go to see your friend?" he asked, getting back on topic. I was impressed that he remembered enough to bring it up again. Most kids would have forgotten after an in-depth talk about shuttles.

"Because she doesn't like him very much and she wants to keep me safe. That's why I wear this bracelet; so that she knows where I am and that I'm safe," I explained.

"Safe from strangers?"

"Yes," I answered; they were strangers to her, after all.

"Mom says not to talk to strangers. But you're not one. We see you here sometimes." He paused to spin us around, jumping back on and making me dizzy in the process.

"Has your Mom ever met your friend?"

"No," I answered and he nodded.

"Well, maybe if she met your friend she would like him. Then you wouldn't be sad anymore."

"_The kid has a point,"_ I told myself, storing it away for later.

"Maybe you're right Tyler. Maybe you're right."

We spun in silence before I checked the time on my watch, seeing that I only had 7 minutes to get home.

"Tyler, I had fun today, but I have to go back home," I told him and he smiled.

"I had fun too, I like you. My Mommy's here! You have to come and say hi! Come on!"

Tyler leapt off the merry-go-round and tugged on my hand until I stood up as well. He then dragged me across the park towards a woman with mousy brown hair standing next to a stroller.

"Mommy! This is my new friend Pet! She told me all about shuttles!" Tyler said, jumping up and down.

"She did?" his mom said with a smile and a wink at me. "That sounds pretty exciting."

"It was! Pet, this is my baby sister. Her name is Leah."

I smiled and looked down at the sleeping infant in the stroller and then back at Tyler's mom.

"I'm Petals Open to the Moon, or Pet," I introduced myself, holding out my hand for her to shake.

"I'm Autumn Breeze. Thank you for entertaining Tyler, I hope he wasn't a bother," she said almost apologetically, looking down at him where he smiled at her sheepishly.

"No, he wasn't a bother at all. He's a very sweet boy," I told her and she beamed. "Sorry to run like this, but I have to get going."

"Nonsense, by all means! It was nice meeting you!" Autumn Breeze smiled at me.

"It was nice to meet you as well. Bye Tyler," I said to him and turned to walk away.

"Wait Pet," I heard him call out to me. "Can I have a hug goodbye?"

I looked up at Autumn Breeze and she nodded encouragingly while beaming at her son.

"Sure you can," I answered, crouching down to his level and opening my arms.

He smiled and walked over, giving me a tight hug, which I returned.

"I hope you get to see your friend again," he whispered and I felt the tears prick at my eyes.

"Thank you. I hope that you get to go on a shuttle soon," I responded and heard him giggle before letting go of me.

He saw my watery eyes and shook his head.

"Don't cry Pet. You look very pretty when you're happy."

I simply gazed at him and his big blue eyes, but he didn't wait for a response before running back to his Mom.

I sighed and turned in the direction of Pet's house, wiping at my eyes. I liked Tyler; he was different than the other kids I worked with. I liked that I could actually have a conversation with him about something other than the planets and worlds. He was human, and I found myself able to connect with him better. When I was with other souls, I felt out of place, like I was pretending.

Of course, I _was_ pretending to be someone I wasn't but I found myself not wanting to be like that. I wanted to be myself. I wanted to be Wanda.

His eyes; Tyler's blue eyes comforted me. I guessed it was because I subconsciously linked them to Ian's blue ones. They weren't the exact same colour of blue, but the thought was what counted. In a weird, twisted kind of way, Tyler reminded me a bit of the children that I had dreamed about; they had blondish hair and Ian's blue eyes, much in the same way that Tyler had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Then I reminded myself that those dreams of the kids would never have a chance of becoming real the longer I stayed there. Even if I did manage to get back to the caves, Ian probably wouldn't want anything to do with me anyways. No normal person would forgive someone that fast; or even believe the real story for that matter.

I walked up the driveway and into the house, where I knew that Cloud Spinner would run into the front hall from her perch in the chair by the front window.

"Three, two, one," I muttered to myself.

Right on cue she came rushing into the front hall and took my coat from me to hang up—like I couldn't have done that myself.

"You're a few minutes early Pet, I'm surprised! How was the park?" she asked while ushering me into the kitchen.

"It was good," I answered her, not wanting to tell her about Tyler. "I just sat on the swings mostly."

"You always used to play on the merry-go-round as a child," she recalled while opening up the fridge and pulling out a juice box and placing it in front of me. What was I four?

"Yeah, I remember. Sometimes I sit on it; depends on how I feel and how many kids are there."

"Were there a lot of children there today?"

"No," I answered, ripping the straw out of its package and stabbing the cardboard box.

Cloud Spinner leaned against the other side of the counter and watched me for a minute as I drank. Once I stopped to breather, she spoke up.

"So you know that trip I'm going on next weekend?" she asked and I nodded. We'd been over that topic a hundred times, there wasn't much left to cover.

"I've decided to let you stay here alone."

My ears perked up and I almost didn't believe what they'd heard for a second.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, looking at her incredulously.

"I'll let you stay here alone. I've thought about it a lot and decided that you're old enough, and definitely mature enough to handle it. Nothing, or nobody has come looking for you, and with the bracelet on, you're safe here."

Inside, I was dancing around, jumping for joy and kissing the ground at her feet simultaneously. I knew that there had to have been something else though.

"But?" I prompted her. I just had to know.

"I want you to carry this around with you and pick up every time that I call."

She slid a silver cell phone across the counter at me and I caught it with my fingers. I toyed with it and opened it up to see a generic background on it.

"It will give me the piece of mind that I need just to hear your voice and know that you're safe."

I snapped the phone shut and looked up at her.

"Isn't there a huge time difference though? What if you call when I'm sleeping? Or at the movies or…"

Her look was enough to silence me. We both knew that I never went anywhere. Even if I was allowed to, I still wouldn't have gone out.

"I'll time my calls. Please, Pet. If there was an emergency or something, I need to be able to get a hold of you, or vice versa."

"I can assure you that nothing will happen while you're away," I told her and she nodded.

"I know, but it will comfort me knowing that you have it and you're just a button away."

I sighed; I wasn't going to win this.

"Alright," I conceded, pocketing the phone and sucking back the rest of my juice box.

"Okay then," Cloud Spinner seemed much relieved and was ready to move on. "What do you want to eat for dinner?"

I shrugged, placing the box back on the counter top.

"It doesn't really matter to me, I'm fine with anything," I answered while moving around the counter to put my box in the recycling.

"I'm going upstairs to finish off my homework," I told her and left the room before she could respond.

I had no homework, everything we did in school was simple, and there wasn't much to do for co-op.

Once I was upstairs and in the pink explosion they called a bedroom, I closed the door and flopped down on my back on the bed. I sighed and stared up at the underside of the canopy overhead while my hand began to unconsciously fiddle with the cuff on my arm again. I could have screamed in frustration at the fact that they were still following me. I lost myself in my thoughts of how to get it off and get out of there and drifted off to sleep.

"Pet? Pet honey, dinner's ready," I heard Cloud Spinner calling to me and I sat up, rubbing at my eyes.

"Sorry?" I said groggily and she smiled.

"I made dinner, come down and eat it," she instructed and held out and hand for me to take.

The only reason I took the offered hand and then held it the whole way down to the kitchen was because Pet would have. If that had been my "real life" as I referred to call it as, it would have been a very different person's hand. Someone whose hand was much more masculine and…

"_Stop it,"_ I chastised myself as I pulled out my chair to sit down.

"I made chicken and pasta and salad," Cloud Spinner announced as she sat down as well.

"Eat up, you look awfully thin."

Thin.

My thoughts raced as I dished some pasta onto my plate. Maybe if my arm was thinner… I glanced down at the cuff and half smiled. If I was thinner, it might just slide off. I knew I'd have to watch what I ate in order to make that work. I vowed to start right then, taking a smaller piece of chicken.

_"This will be difficult around Cloud Spinner,"_ I realized as she eyed me for taking a smaller piece.

But not impossible.

Jamie POV

Me and my stupid big mouth.

I had wanted a meeting with everyone in the caves to discuss what had happened, but once the responsibility of getting everyone together was placed on my shoulders, I chickened out.

Instead, it was just Jared, Kyle, Sunny, Mel, Doc, Jeb and I, but I was still nervous about leading the meeting. This was my shot though, and I couldn't screw it up. For so long I had wanted to be considered as one of them men and make the decisions around the caves, and now they were letting me do this instead of giving the job to Jared, Kyle or…

Jared cleared his throat then from his perch beside my sister on one of the cots and gave me a nod and a small smile. I took that as the signal to begin.

"Um, right," I began, not off to an amazing start.

"Why don't you explain to everyone why you called us here," Doc suggested, smiling at me.

"Uh, yeah." I swallowed hard, my heart beating like crazy. How did they find the courage to do these kinds of things in front of everyone?

"Um. Well. I just… I…" I looked down, embarrassed that I could hardly speak in front of people that I was actually comfortable around.

"Jamie had an idea for trying to fix this situation," Jared started, saving me. "He discussed it with Mel and I, but he wants to run it by the rest of you as well, right?"

"Right."

"Can you just refresh my memory? I don't believe that you explained all the details about what happened exactly right when you all had first got back. I'd like to hear the story again, if you don't mind," Jeb said, crossing his arms in front of his body and looking at the other four.

I looked over at my sister to see her reaction and she just bowed her head. Jared looked away off at something on the wall and Sunny glanced up at Kyle, traces of fear on her face. I think they were in shock about having to retell the whole story again to Jeb and Doc and I, and nobody wanted to do that.

"Fine, I'll do it," Kyle finally spoke and Sunny wrapped her arms around him.

As I listened to the story a second time, I was very entranced. Jeb was right; they had left out a lot of details the first time around that Kyle was telling us then. At first, my thoughts were the same as my initial reaction; I still believed that they should have done something other than just standing there and listening to her, but then I realized that they couldn't have. There was virtually no time. They had enough of it to do exactly what they did do; run.

That realization seemed to fuel the need within me to get Wanda back with us even more. Kyle finished off and the room was completely silent. I saw that Mel had tears glistening in her eyes and I watched as she closed them and they fell down her cheeks.

Before I could leap up and go over to comfort her, Jared had wrapped his arms around her, pulling Mel into his lap. I watched for a second as he whispered to her and began kissing her face before I looked away. I was glad for Mel in many ways that she had gotten Jared back in her life, but it also took away my job of comforting as well. She had Jared for that, and didn't really need her little brother so much anymore. It stung a little, but I knew that they were right for each other.

Sunny, on the other hand, was still holding onto Kyle while he looked straight at Jeb and Doc, not saying a work. The two of them were clearly still going over the story again and it was a few more minutes before anyone spoke again.

"So what was your plan, Jamie?" Jeb finally asked.

I told them about going back to the hospital, but before I had gotten very far, I was stopped.

"Absolutely not."

Kyle's voice echoed clearly through the cave and effectively silenced me.

"There is no way in hell that any of us are going anywhere near that place," he said, gesturing towards the four of them. "And neither is anyone else. It's not safe."

"Anyone else agree with Kyle?" Jeb asked and the other three raised their hands.

"Well then, that part is settled," he said, leaning back against the wall behind him.

The room was quiet for a while then, save for the occasional sniffle from my sister and whisper from Jared.

"What are the chances that Wanda would still be in that body?" Doc finally asked and we all shook our heads or shrugged.

"Sunny? Would you know?" he asked and I automatically looked over to her.

She was still holding on to Kyle, but only a hand, as his other arm rested around her shoulders.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure. I've never heard of a situation where there were two souls in the same body; I'm not even sure it would be possible," she mused, before shaking her head.

"I mean, clearly a soul and a human can still co-habit in a body, but I think that it's highly unlikely that two souls would be in one. It would be difficult for them to survive for one; they would have to fight to attach to all the right places in the body. The only thing that would really result of something like that would be one of them dying off without being linked to all of the points."

She faltered at that, realizing that it could have happened to Wanda. The dying part.

"She wouldn't have given up though. Wanda was a fighter," I said fiercely.

"But once you extract a soul, doesn't that mean that the whole thing would come out? It wouldn't leave just a part of it in there, would it? That would be basically splinching itself, and I can't imagine that it would be particularly comfortable," Doc asked Sunny and all she did was shrug.

"I really don't know. You would have to ask our resident ex-healer. She might have the answers to those questions for you."

"You're right," he agreed, sitting in his chair.

"But where would she be right now then?" I asked and was met once again by silence.

"She might still be in the hospital for all we know. It's been awhile. Unless they accepted her back into society, which I doubt, she'd still be there. Or they would have extracted her or…" Jared stopped then, not wanting to go any further.

"Then shouldn't we…"

"We're not going anywhere near that damned hospital Jamie, and that's final," Kyle growled at me and I nodded in defeat.

"So do we all agree that it would be worth trying to get Wanda back?" Jeb asked and no one answered.

"It's not entirely certain that it's even Wanda in there," Jared admitted and I glared at him.

"How can you not?"

"She was very convincing," Jared shrugged.

"Jamie, even if she's in there, there's no way to get her back. And if she's not, then we'd be wasting all of our time and energy on it, only to get caught. You can bet that Pet would run right to the nearest Seeker station and rat us out," Mel said, trying to make me see.

"I want her back."

"It's not a matter of that. God, if that were the case, I'd have snatched her back here by now. Jamie, you have to see that I want her back just as bad as you do; we all want her back."

"I know. I'm sorry," I said to her and heard the creak of the cot as she got off of it and came over. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my head. I contemplated wiggling out of her arms, but decided not to.

"Jamie, if there was even a slim shot at getting her back, I'd take it. I just don't see one right now, baby," she whispered to me and I nodded.

"Well, I think that this meetin's over," Jeb announced. "It's dinner time and we need some time to think about this matter if we want to do something about it."

Before I could ask what that was about, he had leapt up and ran out of the room, evidently in search of food. The rest of us ambled out of there one by one and I headed back to my room, still thinking of ways to get Wanda back. I stopped walking when it hit me.

If Wanda were still in there, not Pet, she would have had to act like Pet. And in order to do that, she had to go back to Pet's home. I knew where she was. Wanda would have been back in Seattle where Pet lived before we took her.

I ran to my room and began to pace around, planning this out. I had to go there, if not to bring her back, but to check. I needed to do this for everyone. I started throwing clothes onto my mattress while looking for something to put them in.

Mel POV

I knew that Jamie was trying his hardest to get us to believe that Wanda was still out there in our world and it broke my heart a little. I wanted to believe it to, but I didn't want to completely believe it, or else I feel a lot of disappointment if it didn't turn out to be true.

"Mel, you coming to get something to eat?" Jared asked me and I shook my head.

"I want to go and get a sweater before I go. I'll meet you down there," I told him, standing up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"I could go with you…" he trailed off once he saw me shaking my head.

"I'll be fine without you, you know. Save me a seat."

I walked off in the direction of our room before he could say anything else and ran a hand through my hair. I reached the room and opened the door, frowning as I saw that someone was sitting on my bed. I closed the door and got closer to the figure, coming around the side of it, as I couldn't see their face.

I gasped once I saw who it was.

"Ian?"

"Mel. I need to talk to you."

**This chapter was kind of the turning point I guess for the story. We're on the decline now. I don't know how many chapters are left, but we're dwindling down.**

**Also, the scrapbook mentioned in the last chapter is found in my other story, "I'm Right Here". I didn't even realize that I'd linked the two stories until after I'd published this chapter! And I'm glad that some of you caught the 'broken and bleeding' thing with Ian and the story title!**

**I've received kind of mixed thoughts on making The Host into a movie, which I guess is understandable. I'm a little on the fence as well. I know that I'll end up going to see it and all, but I really love the book and don't want them to screw it up. I'm also an avid Host roleplayer and I'm kind of attached to the different playbys we use, so I'm nervous to see who they're going to cast.**

**Who would be your ultimate cast for the movie?**

**Review : ) **


	28. And So It Begins

One of the longest chapters of my life…Thanks to piccolover22, hanaharoo, HockeeChica, brokenfromthepast, Newfoundland Novelist, RawSugarX23, TopoKat90, O'SheaFan, sArAh1995 and HOLLYZ for your awesome reviews! Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot. Red Fires POV

Sky had assembled a team and we had stayed up late many nights planning exactly how the takedown was going to go. We couldn't have put it off anymore, so I gave the order for us to set up and go. As I got into the car with Sky, my adrenaline was racing and I felt nervous as well as excited. This was going to be the takedown of the century—with me at the heart of it.

Sky instructed the driver where to go, or used the GPS, I wasn't really paying attention to what he did; and jabbed away on his cell phone almost the whole way to the place. I looked out the window without really seeing anything; instead, I daydreamed about everything that was to come once this was over and all was said and done.

Of course there would have to be the standard questioning after we had brought them back, and the insertions all depended on whether or not they cooperated. I hated having to use fellow souls for the purpose of extracting information before moving them to a new body, but if it had to be done, we would do it. There were already seven cryotanks filled with willing souls for the insertions back at base. Once we had gotten the information that we needed, the bodies would be destroyed.

I couldn't resist smiling to myself while thinking about what would come to me next. My boss would certainly be very happy with my performance; there was no way that he could deny me a promotion once I'd debriefed him on what had went down. With the promotion would come the other things that I'd been looking forward to; like the increased vacation time and more travelling and presentations. There wouldn't be any more field work.

I would make sure that Sky was well mentioned and accredited for; he had done a tremendous job on organizing the team. That was my sort of test for him; technically I could have done the work, but once I was promoted, I could explain all of exactly what Sky had done. He would then get the job that I had and get his own minion to boss around.

"Red Fires?"

"Hm?"

"How soon would you like to get on a shuttle?" Sky asked with the phone still attached to his ear, looking at me.

I glanced out the front window and realized then that we were headed towards the shuttle terminal.

"As soon as possible Sky. You know me; I'm impatient and I want to bring them down. Now."

"Right away, sir."

He began speaking into the phone again for a moment as we passed the gates into the terminal. It took me a minute to realize that we weren't headed in the direction of the outgoing flights. I frowned and turned to Sky as soon as I'd heard the snap of his phone shutting.

"Where are we going? We were supposed to go the other way."

He just smiled at me stupidly as the car went over a bump and I saw that we passed a plane.

_"Wait, what?" _I thought, frowning more.

"We're leaving as soon as possible, just like you wanted," he said with a shrug just as the car stopped. He then nodded behind me and I turned to look, a little wary about what he'd done.

To my surprise, there was a black shuttle behind me and someone was opening up my door.

_"That was too well orchestrated,"_ I thought while stepping out of the car.

Sky ran around to my side of the car and we walked towards the waiting shuttle. As we got closer, the engines roared to life and I smiled. It was only a matter of time now. Walking onto that shuttle was the best feeling of my life.

Ian POV

I knew that I had to leave my—our room, but I still worried about how people were going to react. I had been sneaking out at nights for about a week, but it still felt like I was skirting around the issue. I needed to just leave and get it over with; like quickly ripping off a band-aid.

Plus, I didn't know if Kyle was going to return like he said he would. I really wanted to avoid that situation.

I'd heard rumblings of a meeting with everyone and I kind of wanted to be there; but since I didn't leave the room, I had no clue when it was. Instead, I'd paced around for an entire morning before finally deciding to just go and see if I could find Jared or someone to ask.

I took a deep breath while standing in front of the red door before sliding it open. I poked my head out and looked both ways; no one was there, so I stepped out and closed the door again. I crept along the hall to Mel and Jared's room first. I pushed aside the curtain draped over their door and saw that the room was empty.

I tried Sunny and Kyle's room and then Jamie's, but they were all empty too. Frowning, I stood there for a second, trying to think of where they might have been. I heard voices travelling in my direction so I quickly jumped into Jamie's room, hoping that they weren't headed for that exact spot. The voices passed and then got quiet again and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I thought of the places that each of them were likely to go, but I didn't want to venture out to a lot of them. The kitchens, bathroom, fields and games room were probably busy by that time of day and if they weren't, the halls on the way sure would have been. I decided to go and check the next like place, since it was mostly out of the way; Doc's 'hospital' cave as it had turned itself into. But first I needed a disguise.

I sifted through Jamie's things until I found a relatively larder sweater; he was almost my size, but his normal clothes wouldn't have fit me. I shook my head once I'd pulled it out, recognizing it to be one of Jared's. I threw it on though without a second thought about its smell or general state of being. I did wonder how Jamie had gotten it in the first place though, Jared didn't like to share his things; except with Mel, and kept very good track of everything.

I pulled up the hood and snuck out of the room and walked down the hall towards where all the different wings of rooms met. As I got closer, I ducked my head and focussed on the ground in front of me; only sometimes looking around to get my general surroundings.

As I'd expected, there were people everywhere going about their business, but they ignored me for the most part. I still tried my hardest to blend in with the rock wall, though not very well as the rock was red and Jared's sweater was blue.

I had made it all the way to the hallway outside of Doc's room undetected; half of my battle was over. I crept along the passageway until stopping just around the corner from the entrance where I could hear voices.

Kyle was talking from what I heard, and I realized that he was retelling what had happened 'that night'. His words were bringing up the pain that seemed to go hand in hand with any sort of memory from then. I felt it ripping through my chest, effectively tearing my heart apart again. I tried to suppress the feeling to save it for later on, but I couldn't get it to subside enough. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore it, but that didn't work either.

I was able to hear them talking again, and Jamie was explaining his plan for getting Wanda back. I was very close to bursting into the room and making him stop what he was saying but Kyle did it for me. There was no way that anyone was ever going near that building, so long as we still lived in the caves and the souls ruled the planet.

Doc broke the silence that had fallen over everyone in there by asking if Wanda could have actually still been in that body. Sunny gave her response, but I had to leave then; my mind was spinning with thoughts and questions that I didn't have the answers to. I began to walk back to the room while still processing everything that I'd heard. One thing was for sure; I needed to talk to someone about it, someone who wasn't likely to hit me.

Kyle's words from the previous week echoed through my head,

"_You should really go and talk to someone and let them in, you know…I'm serious though. Jared, Jamie, and especially Mel are all just as broken as you are. If no one else, you should go and see them."_

I decided that Mel was the best choice to talk to, even though there was a small chance of injury, but that was a small chance I'd have to take.

I once again found myself outside of Mel and Jared's room, but this time I contemplated whether or not to wait outside the room or inside. I waited around for a few minutes, loitering around the hall so that I didn't intrude upon their space. Then I heard more voices.

"I just with that I knew what had happened," the first voice said and I recognized it as Paige's voice. "I mean, we have every right to know just as much as they do. I mean, Wanda was our friend too."

"I know," the voice that belonged to Andy agreed. "I kind of want to talk with Ian to. He's been hiding from us and I don't think that it's right. It's almost been three weeks, he should be over what happened."

I realized that their voices were getting louder and they seemed to be headed in my direction so I quickly stepped into the room. A talk with Kyle or Mel I could handle since they knew what had gone on, but one with Andy, I wasn't exactly keen on. By the tone of his voice he seemed almost resentful that I hadn't shown my face. Those wounds in my chest that I hand managed to get under control since Doc's cave opened up again as I recalled what Andy had said.

I didn't understand how he didn't see that it wasn't right for me not to come out. If something had happened to Paige, he would have reacted the same way that I had. If only he knew…

But that was part of it as well. It was still only the eight of us that knew of it.

As I walked around to sit on the mattress, I decided to have them tell everyone about it. If they couldn't, then Jamie could; he had probably heard it enough times; only after that was done would I make a solid effort to leave our—my room again. I just didn't want to be the one to tell everyone. I knew that it would cause an uproar and I would be at the thick of it anyways, so I just needed the time to prepare myself.

"_Jeb might have to start carrying his gun again,"_ I thought right before I noticed the sound of footsteps echoing off the walls in the room. A few seconds passed before whoever it was spoke as they walked around to me.

"Ian?"

Bingo. It was Mel.

"Mel. I need to talk to you," I told her while trying to keep my voice level.

"Um, okay," she responded and I felt the mattress lower beside me under her weight.

"How are you doing?" Mel asked awkwardly and I shrugged.

"Did you talk to Kyle?"

"Yeah, he told me that you guys had talked and everything. Honestly, I was kind of expecting to see you out of your room after that to get food and stuff."

"I've been doing that at night," I responded and saw her shake her head out of the corner of my eye.

I took a deep breath and turned my head towards her.

"Are you okay? I know that this must have been hard on you too and…" I was interrupted by a gasp, so I stopped.

"Ian your face. Does it hurt?"

I shook my head. "It's mostly healed now anyways. But it doesn't matter."

There was a silence for a minute and I thought that she wasn't going to answer me; and I really didn't want to repeat myself.

"I'm doing as well as I could be doing, I suppose," she finally said and I saw her shrug. "I keep trying to make an effort to get out and move around the caves, but it just so different out there now."

"Kyle mentioned something about that," I told her.

"Everyone's quiet, and it only gets worse when we're around. It's like they're so afraid of us now or something."

"I want someone to tell them," I instructed her, leaving out what I had heard Paige and Andy saying.

"They deserve to know, and this silent treatment or whatever has to end. If anything, we all need to stick together though this, not alienate some people."

"Then you do it," she replied.

"No."

"They would probably receive it better if you…"

"I'm _not_ doing it!" I half-shouted at her, jumping off the bed. "There is _no_ way that I can get up in front of everyone and re-tell the story of how I lost Wan—Pet—fuck. That's what hurts me the most; not knowing exactly who it was in that body, who I'd spent all that time with.

"I know Ian," Mel said after watching me stand there; I could feel her eyes on my. "You knew Wanda as a friend and a lover, but I knew her like a sister; you know that. After spending all that time with her in here," she tapped her head, "and then losing her; I'm hurting too."

I heard her voice break on the last words that she spoke and I turned around to see her all hunched over, shoulder shaking with sobs. I knew that things between us hadn't been the greatest; she basically hated me while Wanda was inside her and then it was weird for us after the insertion, but that didn't mean that I couldn't offer her some comfort. I pushed my own pain and anguish aside as I pulled Mel up off the mattress and hugged her.

I could feel her tears soaking into my shoulder and I held her tighter to me. It was almost as if that one hug seemed to break down that last barrier between Mel and I; we could finally be friends. It was just another thing that Wanda had inadvertently done. I bit my lip to stop the overwhelming sadness I felt building up within me, determined not to let Mel see me cry.

Crying in front of Kyle was one thing; he was family and therefore couldn't judge me because of that, but in front of someone else was another. Except for the person you loved the most. And for me, she was long gone.

We stood there until Melanie's sobs had subsided and she pulled away from me, looking a little embarrassed.

"Sorry," she whispered, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"You know, Jamie still believes that she's out there," she said quietly and I let out a breath of air that I didn't even know that I had been holding.

"I know. I heard him today."

"What?" Mel asked, turning to me with a frown on her face. "How?"

"I came down to the hall outside of Doc's room today; I heard Jamie talking," I explained and she nodded

"Then why didn't you come in?"

I just shook my head. Mel sighed and ran a hand through her hair and I noticed something.

"Where's your ring?" I asked hesitantly, not sure if that was a bad question to ask or not.

"Hm?"

"Why aren't you wearing it? Did you and Jared…"

Her eyes opened wide in realization of what I was talking about and she began shaking her head back and forth.

"No! No, we're still very much together. I just took it off because it didn't feel right walked around here with it on while Wanda's gone. I guess it didn't feel right that Jared and I should be happy about that with everything that's going on," she paused to take a breath.

"It's kind of hard to explain, but yeah. Jared knows, I talked to him about it and he seemed fine with it but…"

"You should wear it," I told her while nodding.

"But I knew what your intentions were for you and Wanda and…"

"Wear it. There's no reason for you not to be happy about it. Wanda would want you to," I added, tears pricking at my eyes. Her mention of my possible engagement that never happened to Wanda struck a chord deep within me.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's fine."

"Ian."

"What," I said in a sort of snappy voice.

"Don't be a jackass," she said and I knew that tough Melanie was back for the time being.

"You're got horrible mood swings like you're PMSing or something. Don't push us all away. We want to help you, and we can't do that when you ignore us."

I was quiet for a second and knew that she was right, but there was nothing that could be done to fix this; fix me.

"You can't let Jamie go to that hospital."

"No shit. Nobody is ever going near there."

"Good."

She stepped right in front of me and I tried to look away, but she just moved again.

"Mel…"

"Don't push me away Ian. Tell me what will make this better for you. Anything. I want to help you."

"Nothing," I muttered and she shook her head.

"Don't give me that. Tell me. Do you want me to rub your back?"

"Mel…"

"Clean your room?"

"No…"

"Do your laundry?"

"Mel."

"Bring you food?"

"I want Wanda back!" I finally exploded, unable to take it any more. "I want _my_ Wanda back! The one who was inside you; the one I fell in love with. And that's not about to happen."

Footsteps and shouting voices could be heard out in the hall in the silence right after my little outburst.

"Ian, I…"

"Forget it," I told her. "It can't happen now anyways."

"Do you believe that she's out there somewhere?"

"I…"

Before I had the chance to respond, Jared burst into the room panting and sweating. He looked at Mel and I before shaking his head and turning to her.

"Mel you've got to come," he panted and she frowned, rushing over to him.

"Why? What's wrong? Take a breath Jared, before you keel over or something," she instructed and he nodded, following her directions.

"It's Jamie, he's..."

"Is he okay? What is it? Why?"

"Let him speak," I told her and she was silent.

"He's trying to leave and won't listen to any of us. He might listen to you though. I need you to come right now," Jared explained and I hung my head. Jamie would try something like that.

"What?! Where is he?"

"Come on," he said, standing back up and taking her hand, starting to pull her from the room.

"You too, come," she told me, holding out a hand for me to follow them as Jared was half dragging her from the room.

"Mel, I can't."

"Come."

It was clear that she wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, so I just shoved my hands in my pockets and followed them out of the room and into the hall.

"Why is he trying to leave?" Mel finally asked Jared as he continued to tow her along.

"He thinks that he's going to go by himself and find Wanda," Jared explained. "Brandt and Andy are holding him off; Jeb is on his way. We have to hurry though."

With that, we all broke out into a run and I didn't care who saw me once we made it out into the main cavern. We had to stop Jamie.

Wanda POV

"Okay. So you know where everything is, right? I've left all the numbers that you might possibly need by the phone. The fridge is stocked and there's extra money in the drawer by the stove. I've also left my cookbook out in case you want to be ambitious, but please, please be careful. Don't worry about laundry or anything; I'll do that when I get back. And you've still got the phone I gave you?"

"Yes Mom," I responded, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

"Now _don't_ be afraid to call me for anything Pet. I'm serious, absolutely anything."

"I know."

"Pet," she said in her warning voice and I nodded, willing to stay silent and allow her that moment of reminders if it would get her to leave faster. I had a lot of things that needed to be done and only a short amount of time to do it.

"I've left the instructions for the locks right here attached to the door," she continued, walking out to the front door and pointing at the obvious purple note on it. "And there's one for the alarm system here." It was green. That one I would probably actually find useful, as I had absolutely no idea how to use the system and would need to learn how to arm it for when I…

"Pet," I heard her calling to me and I snapped out of it.

"Yeah?" I asked hesitantly, almost afraid that she was going to yell or something.

"Oh, I'm going to miss you so much, baby," she nearly cried and rushed forwards to me with her arms out, enveloping me in a hug.

I tentatively wrapped my arms around her before letting myself really hug her; after all, if everything went as planned, this would be the last hug that Cloud Spinner would ever get from her 'daughter'. Plus, I loved her hugs; I had never been hugged by a mother before, and this was something that I cherished, even if it was for all the wrong reasons.

Finally she pulled away from me and I saw her wiping away tears from her eyes, though she tried to hide it from me. She smiled down at me before patting my cheek lightly and tilting her head to the side.

"Promise me that you'll be safe," she whispered and I nodded.

"I'll be safe, Mom. You won't have to worry about me. I'm all grown up, after all," I told her and she chuckled a little.

"I know that Pet, but I've already lost you once and I just got you back. I don't want anything bad to happen to you again. You've already been through so much."

"Yeah," I murmured, smiling at her.

A honk sounded from outside before there was a sharp knock at the door. Cloud Spinner opened it to find one of her co-workers there waiting for her.

"Have fun," I said to her as they gathered up her luggage and began to carry it outside.

"I mean it, call me if there's absolutely anything at all," Cloud Spinner said before hugging me one last time and kissing my head.

"I will, I promise. Now go, I'll be fine."

She seemed to bite her lip for a minute, almost contemplating this whole thing, but I gave her a gentle shove out the door to the waiting car.

"All right. I'll see you on Monday when I get back. I'll only be gone four days, so…"

"Mom," I interrupted her before she started up again.

"Oh, all right then," she conceded, walking out to the car. Before she got in, she turned back to the house where I was still standing in the doorway.

"And please, Pet eat something while I'm away. You look too thin."

I just nodded as she turned and got into the car, agreeing to it, though I knew that I wouldn't; that put a damper in the plan. I waved to the car as it pulled away from the house and drove down the street before going back inside and closing the door.

I immediately went straight to the drawer that she had left the extra money in and pulled some out of it. I wanted to leave a little in there for when she got back so that it didn't look like just I took it all and ran. As I was counting some out, I stopped for a second to question why she would even leave me any money; it wasn't like they used it at all in this society, everything was free. I shrugged before pulling out what I needed; it was probably one of those old habits that she just hadn't broken yet.

I then ran up to Pet's room and checked that I had everything again. Inside the huge closet I had found an old knapsack and filled it with essential things that I would need on my trip. There were bottles of water, and I knew to conserve it for when I was back in the desert; until then I could take advantage of the fact that I was a soul and could just walk into a restaurant or something. Unless they had figured out that I was gone and I was listed as a missing person. Then, I would have a problem on my hands.

There were also some packages of dried fruit and granola bars that would certainly come in handy; I had learned a lot from my last journey into the caves with Melanie. I was really glad that she had taught me all about surviving, even though I hadn't heeded her many warnings half the time; with her 'lessons' I would be able to make it a second time without nearly dying of dehydration.

There were a few items of clothing on the floor beside the bag; I hated most of Pet's clothes and they had taken away the stuff that I was wearing when they'd captured me, so I planned on doing a little shopping before actually setting out. As in later that day, before I started to get the cuff off of my wrist the next day.

I looked down at it and then tugged it forward towards my hand again as I'd done a countless number of times since I'd started to lose the weight. It just did what it kept doing every time that I tried that; it slid up my arm enough and that wasn't the problem, it just kept hitting the bone that stuck out in my wrist and stopping. There was nothing that I could do about that bone; I couldn't lose any bone mass to make it smaller like I could lose weight to make my arm smaller. The slight weight loss helped a little, but it still wouldn't get it off of my arm.

After I'd checked everything again and packed the water and packages of food safely into the bottom of the bag, I retreated out into the main part of the bedroom and bounced on the bed before reaching for the table beside it. I pulled a notebook out of the top drawer and opened it up to the list of things that I wanted to try in order to get the stupid cuff off.

I glanced over it again, as I practically knew all the items on it off by heart, but it was still reassuring to look it over. I decided to grab something from the house to eat before I left, I didn't want to leave it too soon after Cloud Spinner had gone as that would look suspicious to Red Fires or whoever it was who was tracking me with the stupid cuff. I would be so glad to get rid of it when the time came. I couldn't wait.

I bounded down the stairs with a smile on my face and skipped into the kitchen. I was a little close to being back with Ian, and that was enough to make me smile, even though I knew that he would probably hate me once I got back to the caves. Just the thought of being in the same vicinity as him was enough to put me in a good mood. If I focussed on the good things and not the bad, it motivated me to get out of there.

Jamie POV

It was making me mad that Brandt and Andy were basically keeping me here against my will. All I could do was pace back and forth through the hall that was so close to the exit of the caves and wait until Jared got back. If he hadn't seen me bolting through the caves with my bag, I would have been home free and long gone. I should have slowed down, I realized; but then again, it was Jared and he still would have noticed and stopped me. I shook my head before glaring at the two of them. Brandt just shrugged and widened his stance, trying his best to look menacing, but it wasn't working very well.

I heard panting from someone coming around the corner behind Andy and I looked up, glad that Jared was finally back. I nearly groaned when the person came around and I saw that it was Jeb, not Jared. Of course he would have gone and gotten Jeb.

"I'm going to wait for Jared to get back before you go and explain yourself," he told me while going to stand beside Brandt. "There's no need for you to waste your breath."

I rolled my eyes and nodded, hearing footsteps coming again. This time, three people emerged into the hall that we were in and I was shocked. Jared was back with Mel, who I knew that he would go and get, but Ian was also with them. That had to have been the first time that Ian had been out of his room. I instantly felt bad for doing something stupid and ripping him out of wherever he was. It seemed childish of me, but at the same time, I had to do something to get Wanda back; no one else was doing anything.

"Okay, what's going on?" my sister demanded as soon as they'd stopped running and she came over to me. "Why on Earth are you trying to go out there alone? Are you suicidal?"

"No," I defended myself. "I just want to get Wanda back. And seeing as how none of you are doing anything about it, I'm going to do it myself."

There was silence for a minute while I glared at them all, except for Ian. He didn't deserve to be glared at; he wasn't doing anything to stop me.

"Jamie, you can't just go out and grab her back. That kind of mission would take days of planning. We don't even know where she would be," Mel started and I shook my head, silencing her.

"That doesn't matter. And besides, some of the best plans are the ones that are the least thought out; I thought that Wanda showed us that when she went out to get the medicine for me," I said and she looked down.

"I know Jamie, but…"

"Like she said, we don't even know where she would be," Jared repeated, stepping forwards to place and hand on Mel's shoulder.

"So why can't we at least go and look?" I asked and he frowned.

"Where were you going to look?" Jeb asked and I turned to him, grateful for the opportunity to turn away from Jared and his scrutinizing eyes.

"I was going up to Seattle, back to where we found Pet. If she were going to go anywhere, it would probably be there. They would send her right back home after they'd talked with her and everything. That's where she would be most likely to be," I explained and he shrugged.

"And what if she's gone," Ian's voice echoed through the hall from where he was standing against the wall. "What if Wanda really is already gone. You would go to all that trouble for nothing. You know that. I know that. There's no point, Jamie."

"Come on, Ian! If anyone's got to have faith and believe that she's out there, it's you! You know that Wanda would never do anything to hurt you or leave you!" I shouted at him and saw Ian frown and drop his head forward.

"_If_ she were still there when… that… happened, why would she have done it then?" he asked and I shook my head.

"I don't know. I can't answer that Ian, I'm not Wanda. But I sure want to go up there and get her to talk to Wanda and see exactly why she did it. I know that she never meant to do this to you; she would not have wanted to hurt you," I pleaded with him, silently hoping that he'd come along.

"Wanda's not out there," he said flatly and it took everything in me not to scream at him.

Before I could open my mouth though, he held up a hand to stop me.

"Wanda never would have done something like that. Pet," he spat her name out in anger, "did it so that she could get back home. End of story."

"So you agree that she's back in Seattle," I said and he shook his head.

"Wanda is gone. She's gone from this planet."

"Ian…"

"Jamie, drop it," he told me, crossing his arms and I took that as the sign that he was done talking to me about this.

"Mel, you believe me, right?" I turned to her next, seeing as how I clearly wasn't getting through to Ian. "You know that she's out there, right?"

"Jamie baby, I don't know what to believe anymore," she answered me and put a hand on my cheek.

"Wouldn't it be better to just go and check and see if she's really there? Even if she's not, then we would know for sure, but I can't just sit around here anymore not knowing," I pleaded with her, looking up at Jared for help.

"Fine."

Jared's single word filled me with hope, and before it all came crashing down, I asked what I needed to know.

"I'm coming, right?"

"Jamie," Mel started to argue, but Jared cut her off.

"Let him come. He can see and then bring back the news to everyone," he said and I silently thanked him.

"Fine. You, me, Jared," Mel agreed, not looking very happy about it. "Ian, do you want to come," she asked him, turning around.

Ian just shook his head before pushing off the wall and walking back down in the direction of the main room.

"Let's go get packed, we'll leave right away," Jared said right before Jeb cleared his throat.

"Are you sure that this is best?" he asked and Jared shrugged.

"I'm not sure what's best anymore Jeb. But I know that Jamie is right; we have to know for sure. We can't keep living here just wondering. It will be good for us just to know," he said and I nodded.

"Leave right now then. I can keep everyone occupied for another half an hour, that should give you enough time to get out without anyone noticing," he instructed and we all nodded. "Do you want Kyle to come along?"

"No," Mel answered for us and I frowned at her. "Someone needs to stay here with Ian. I'm pretty sure that he'll lash out or something once he knows that we're leaving. He's very convinced that Wanda's gone."

"Get going now," Jeb instructed us, and Mel grabbed my hand right before they took off.

Soon after that, the two of them had packed what they needed and we were running across the desert for the Jeep. Since it was almost dusk when we left, we could travel safely under the cover of the night. Once we had taken the Jeep, we continued on and only stopped to grab the van before going on.

Mel and Jared consulted the map while I lay in the back. I could hear them discussing which way to take, since there was something they called like "seeker spots" or something. We made good time that night and the next morning, though I slept through a lot of the journey. Before I knew it we were in Seattle again. We crept through the streets and drove past the spot where we had found Pet the first time before Jared pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned house.

"In a few hours we'll get out and start scooping around," Mel told me before she climbed into the back. "For now, Jared needs to rest."

"Did you drive that whole way?" I asked him and he shook his head before lying down and Mel covered him with a blanket.

"We took turns, but he's still wiped," she whispered to me. "Keep watch and wake us if anything happens."

I nodded and sat up against the wall of the van. It would only be a matter of a couple hours before we saw Wanda again and I was very excited.

So the last chapter I posted was all funny and the bolded POV breaks didn't show up, so I apologize for that.

**Some of you said that the last chapter wasn't long enough, so this one is longer! It clocked in over 6 000 words before the a/n's and things.**

**These next few are going to be long ones : )**

**Review**

**: )**


	29. Stakeouts and Takedowns

**I know it's a little late, there's an explanation at the bottom.**

**Thanks to Kiara212, kimmitwilight, piccolover22, HockeeChica, RawSugarX23, dragonwriter512, winky23, HOLLYZ, AliceLuvsU, mediate89, Princess Skye, brokenfromthepast, anmapamo, TopKat90, 123xyz, Wolfgirl82 and flooridiot12 for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Red Fires POV**

It had taken several hours for us to get from the shuttle station up here to where Sky and I along with all of the other 'helpers' that Sky had assembled were stationed, waiting for them to come out. My palms were sweating, as was just about every pore on my body, but I was more excited for this moment than I was nervous for the outcome. A couple of our team members had seen a pair of them go into the place that we were hiding out right across from, so it was only a matter of time before they had to come out again.

"Red Fires?" I heard Sky ask me and I turned my head towards him, silently giving him permission to continue.

"Are you ready for your life to change?" he asked with a smile on his face. I couldn't help but to smile back at him and nod at the same time.

"You bet I am. I've been waiting my whole life here for something like this to go down. And it won't just be my life that will change; yours will too."

He shook his head, but I nodded. "Yes it will. You did a lot of work here, Sky."

"Thank you sir," he said, smiling to himself and I was glad to have finally given him something to smile about. We had been partners for awhile now, so I figured that on the eve of the biggest thing of our lives I could give him some kind of niceness and credit.

I heard a voice over the radio that was clipped to my ear in a little wireless headset transmitter.

"There's movement coming this way," one of the men that was stationed a little ahead of us informed us and I grinned before focussing on this pivotal moment.

I raised myself a little from my crouched position behind a rock so that I could see over towards where the people would be moving. Sure enough, I saw two figures emerging from the space in front of us. I had to give the order or else this would all be for nothing.

"Go now," I said simply and watched as my men surrounded the two figures before dragging them to the ground.

Sky and I emerged from our hiding place and jumped immediately into the truck that pulled up in front of us. The three men that were transporting our humans had given them chloroform or something to knock them out until we got them where we needed them. We couldn't interview them in the middle of the street without causing a scene. There were ten other men staying behind to scout for any more humans in there.

It only took us about ten minutes to reach the 'safe building' that Sky had set up for us. The humans; one male and a female, were carried into the building by our assistants and set up on couches. All we had to do was wait for them to wake up and half of the battle would be over.

**Jamie POV**

We were still camped around the corner from Pet's house where we were waiting very patiently; well I was since Jared and Mel were napping, for Wanda to emerge so that we could...

I actually had no idea what we were going to do next. We could just show ourselves and hope that she would follow us, or we could knock her out and take her like we did to Pet, but that would be mean. I shuddered at that thought. I guess the best that we could do was to just corner her somewhere out of the way and talk to her. Somewhere with the van close by though, so if it did turn out to be Pet; which I knew that it wasn't, we could run and get away faster than it would take her to alert anyone else to us being there.

I sighed and leaned back against the seat that I was sitting in, looking at Pet's house again. Jared had found a neat little nook for us to park in where no one could see us, but we could see out. I had to hand it to him; that certainly was one of his better ideas. Mel didn't even flip out on him for parking in a residential area filled with souls either, so that was good.

The sun was just beginning to rise, so we still had a couple of hours to wait until we might get a glimpse of Wanda; I was very impatient. It seemed almost useless to have come all that way just to sit there and have to wait some more. But there was nothing I could really do about that.

A few of the houses around us were beginning to stir and I could see lights being flipped on in various rooms of these houses as the souls began to get up to start their days. They lived their lives so carefree compared to us, and I kind of envied that. I could hardly remember a world where we weren't on the run or hiding from these people. I was just really glad that Jared had found my sister and we had gone to the caves, or else we would have _still_ been in hiding somewhere. I didn't even want to think of the probability of us still even being alive if we were still out there.

As the sun came up and I glanced at the time on the dashboard, I saw that it was nearly 7:30am and wondered how much longer it would take Wanda to leave her house. Already the families with little ones were emerging and crowding around common places, probably waiting for buses to take the children to school. One family consisting of a mother pushing a stroller with an infant in it and a little blonde haired boy passed almost directly in front of where we were hidden and I held my breath, almost afraid that so much as a sigh would give us away to them.

To my surprise, the little blonde boy stopped directly in front of the van and looked in our direction. I knew that he was looking at us. His mother called for him a few times before coming back and asking what he was looking at.

"Nothing Mommy, I thought I saw a cat," he lied, as I could see him looking directly into my eyes.

"Oh, how sweet Tyler! What colour was the kitty?" his mom asked and he smiled at me before winking.

"An orange one," this boy Tyler replied before being ushered away by his mother, still talking about the fake orange cat.

As soon as they were far enough away, I let out the breath of air that I had been holding in and shook my head. I couldn't figure out why that little boy would have lied to his mother about that. I thought that all souls were truth-telling individuals. And how could he have seen us? I didn't get that either. Especially since the kid's mother couldn't see anything and she looked _directly_ at the van, the same as he did. He must have been one special kid or something.

About two hours later there was finally movement at Pet's house. I saw a figure with blonde hair look out of a window before shutting the curtains. She repeated that twice and I grew excited.

"Mel! Jared! She's up and moving!"

The sluggishly moved around as I yelled at them and slowly came to sit up front and look at the house as well. In a downstairs window, the blonde haired person walked back and forth in front of the window twice and it looked like she was talking into a phone before she looked outside and shut the curtains.

"She might be mobile soon. What's our plan of action?" Jared asked, motioning for me to get out of the driver's seat. I moved in between the seats and he leapt over me into the once that I had just vacated.

"Well, we've got to wait for her to come outside before we can do anything. I don't think she'll take it too well if we just knock on the door and do it that way. We can follow her for a little while and then ask her?" I suggested as sort of a question and Mel nodded.

"I agree. We can't exactly waltz in there and everything. So I guess we just wait then," she said, and Jared and I agreed.

Not too much longer after we had decided that, the front door of the house opened up and the girl emerged out onto the little porch. She turned around to lock the door and Mel was already looking through the binoculars at her.

"It's her; it's Wanda," she reported, her voice wavering a little bit and she didn't even attack me when I grabbed the binocs from her.

I looked through and a huge smile lit up my face as I recognized Wanda's face and everything about her.

"It sure is," I agreed.

Wanda kind of looked around a little bit before setting off in the direction of the little stores that we had passed on the way in.

"Where's she going?" Mel asked, taking them back from me and watching her. Jared and I leaned forwards to keep a visual on her, but we lost her.

"Can you still see her?" Jared asked and Mel shrugged while shaking her head.

"A little, but I'm losing her."

"Sit back, Jamie, I'm going to move the van so that we can see her. Don't worry," he said to Mel as she started to open her mouth, probably to argue him. "I'll make sure that she can't see us. We'll be as inconspicuous as possible."

"Right," she snorted, looking through the binoculars as Jared pulled into the street. "In a gigantic van. Good one. We should have brought the car," she sighed and I shrugged.

"It wouldn't have made much of a difference; we still would have ended up following her like this. And plus, then they could have seen into the back of it while we drive around," I pointed out, but nobody responded.

We followed her while trying not to seem creepy and stalker-ish, watching as she walked right into the little grocery store that was in the pocket of stores. Jared pulled into the back of the lot and we waited until she emerged again before walking into another little store. Wanda came out with a bag from there to add to the bag that she had acquired from the first store and began to walk back in the direction that she had come from. It almost seemed like she was a little on-edge about something, and I hoped that she wouldn't notice that we were following her and freak out.

Then again, she might have recognized the van and given it up or something, just jumping in and coming with us as we took her back home. That was a long stretch, I realized, but I could hope.

She went back to the house and inside, so Jared parked us in the same spot as before. I really hoped that we didn't have to wait long before she came out again because I was growing impatient. Unfortunately, I had no control over that aspect; we would just have to wait it out. Jared leaned his head back against the headrest, but didn't take his eyes off of the house and Mel just trained the binoculars on the windows.

"Do we think it's her?" Jared asked quietly.

"Yes."

"I'm not sure."

"Why not, Mel?" he asked her, probably because he already knew why I said yes.

"Well, I mean of course the body is going to look like the one that we got for her originally, and she seems to still have the same way of holding herself like Wanda did, but I dunno. She seems a little uncomfortable."

"That could be a sign that it's Wanda," I pointed out and she nodded.

"Or it could be that Pet is spooked after that kind of an experience. Although we were nothing but nice to her, so I don't see why she would have any reason to be afraid of us," Mel pointed out and Jared laughed.

"Yes we were incredibly nice to her. I mean, beside the whole drugging her and taking her back to the caves before cutting her open and taking her out to replace her with someone else part," he said sarcastically .

"Jamie, move," Mel instructed me and I ducked, frowning.

She reached over, only taking one hand off of her binoculars and hit Jared on the shoulder, shaking her head as she took her hand back.

"Honestly Jared, you really had to go there?"

"Yeah, I did," he replied, rubbing his shoulder where she had just hit him and I smiled apologetically for her actions. He just smiled and shook his head, rolling his eyes; he was used to it anyways.

Silence filled the van then and was broken about five minutes later by my impatient sister.

"Is anyone else antsy about this?" she asked from behind her binocs. I swear she had glued them to her face. If she kept holding them up to her eyes any more, she was going to have permanent rings around her eyes from them.

"I am," I answered, which probably didn't surprise anyone.

"Me too," Jared answered and I nodded. Of course he would be; he was out of the caves not two weeks after returning from the raid that had gone wrong. If this got screwed up too, it would seriously mess with his head.

Mel began tapping her hand against the contraption that was practically attached to her face and after about a minute it became annoying to me. I looked to see what it was that was making all the noise; it couldn't have been just her hand, and saw that there was a ring sitting on her left ring finger. She hadn't said anything about having one, and I hadn't even noticed a ring on there until now; but it could have only meant one thing. She and Jared had to have been engaged.

I looked over at Jared and he was staring at the ring with a little smile on his face. When had this happened? I couldn't figure it out unless he had proposed while they were away. But I didn't know why they wouldn't have said anything to me about it. I wasn't going to confront them, because I didn't want to create any friction, especially since I didn't know how long we were going to be stuck in there.

I let it slide for the moment as we sat back and just waited. I was going to go crazy unless Wanda came out of that house. There wasn't much to do until then.

**Wanda POV**

Someone was watching and following me.

I had first noticed when I had heard the rumble of a diesel engine very early in the morning. This struck me as odd and a bit strange seeing as how there were no souls up and moving around before 6am in this neighbourhood. There were noise by-laws and things too that they had made up to ensure that this was a quiet area.

When I first heard it, I had bolted out of bed, scared that whatever it was was going to cause mayhem or something. The van had just gone around the corner and disappeared, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get back to sleep. Instead, I went and reorganized the bag that I was going to take with me again and going over the list of supplies that I needed to get this cuff off of my wrist.

I realized that I had been trying to tug it off again and rolled my eyes. I still couldn't get it off because of that bone, but I still kept on unconsciously trying to. You'd have thought that I had learned by then, but no.

I had decided the night before that I was going to get my supplies to use to get the cuff off of my arm once and for all. I would then wait and stick it on something and then leave as fast as possible. It would be better if I had access to a car to get out faster, but Cloud Spinner didn't believe in having a car; she didn't want to ruin the environment, even with those extreme eco-friendly vehicles. I wasn't exactly going to argue with her though, it was her opinion.

I had waited until the morning school bus had come and picked up all the children and their families had dispersed to go either to work or back home before I ventured out to the stores. As I waited, I had drawn all the curtains closed in all of the windows, because it freaked me out knowing that those people in the van might have been watching me. As I was doing that, the cell phone that Cloud Spinner had given me rang for like the millionth time since she had left.

"Hi Mom," I answered as I walked down to the first floor.

"Hi honey, is everything alright?" she asked in a hushed voice and I figured she wasn't supposed to have been on the phone or something.

"Everything's still the same as the last time that you called last night," I answered while walking into the living room.

_"Liar,"_ I said to myself, knowing full well that I was leaving out the bit about the van. There was no way I was telling her about that.

"I see. Have you eaten?"

"I just got up, I was going to get something to eat, yes," I said to her while starting to pace around the room. Phone conversations with her made me antsy and eager to get off the phone; I was always afraid of giving something away.

"That's good. What were you going to eat?"

Really. "Uh, just some cereal. I'll be fine, Cloud Spinner, it sounds like you need to get back to what you were doing," I told her, trying to get out of it early.

"Oh no Pet, I always have time for you."

"Uh huh."

I heard in the background someone calling for her and she gave a bit of a rushed goodbye before promising to call back when she was done with her meeting. I closed the phone and shook my head before closing the curtains. She really was something else.

After that little conversation, I began to walk towards the stores down the street and had rounded the corner from Pet's house when I heard the sound of a diesel engine again. I resisted the urge to look behind me at the vehicle, as I didn't want them to know that I was onto them, so instead I continued on and went into the grocery store. I got the things I needed and as I was at the checkout, I looked out the big front window and spotted the van in the back row of the parking lot.

I decided to see if it really was following me; or if I was just paranoid, so I left the grocery store after getting my bag and went next door to the hair salon and got some unneeded shampoo. I just wanted to see if the van was going to stick around while I was in there or not. When I came out, it was still there. I quickly walked home and peeked out the curtains in the front window, but I didn't see the van drive by. I frowned before shutting them tight again and running up to Pet's room to dump the contents of my bags on her bed.

I picked up the package of butter and placed it on the window sill to soften it up a bit before I used it, otherwise it would be too hard and cold. After doing that, I took the bottle of vegetable oil that I had gotten into Pet's bathroom and opened it up. I poured a generous amount onto my arm and slathered it all over with my fingers, making sure to get a lot of it under the cuff and around the little round bone that had been stopping it.

Once I had slathered what I thought would have been enough onto my arm, I tried to pull at the cuff, but the hand doing the pulling just slid off, as it was too slippery. I sighed and turned on the tap to wash off the oil from that hand. As soon as I had done that and dried my hand off I began to slide the cuff forwards towards my fingers. Like it did every single other time I tried it, I was able to edge it just to the point where it would hit the bone and then get stuck again.

I really cursed Cloud Spinner's genes for creating such a large bump on Pet's arm like that. Then again, everyone had one; they just never really had a problem with it like I did. They also didn't have to get a stupid metal thing off of their writs, therefore realizing just how big it really was.

I walked out of the bathroom and over to the windowsill to check on the butter. I poked a finger into it and it was still fairly solid. I cracked open the blind a little to allow it to be in direct sunlight before I went to go and put some more oil on my arm. Perhaps if I just made it more slippery then it might work.

Three quarters of an hour later, after just about exhausting every plan that I had in mind for getting this thing off, I slumped down on the bathroom floor in defeat. I couldn't get it off. I was going to be stuck there for the rest of my existence on Earth, and would never get to see Ian again. The thought made my heart very heavy and I bent my head down as the tears welled up. I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry again, but I couldn't help it; nothing was working and there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I just wanted to be back with Ian more than anything.

I could hear the distant ringing of the cell phone from the bed in Pet's room where I had left it and I considered not picking up, but I didn't want Cloud Spinner to worry and call the National Guard or something. Instead, I tried to compose myself during the short walk into the room and took a deep breath before answering.

"Hi Mom."

**Red Fires POV**

I watched as the two humans began to stir in their sleep and smiled to myself. I hadn't recognized them as ones from the hospital when we had gotten Pet back safely, but that didn't mean that they weren't just some others from their little hideout. I couldn't believe that we had actually caught these two. That had to have been the best moment of my life.

Sky sat back down in his chair beside me as they began to stretch and rub their eyes. The female was the first to sit up and look around, squinting because of the light. The male just frowned and looked around from where he was lying on the couch, but neither of them said anything. I gave them a minute before I spoke.

"Hello, my name is Red Fires and this is my partner Sky. What are your names?" I tried to be as polite as possible so that I didn't scare the humans off.

The male sat up then and looked over at the female before answering me.

"My name is Cold Fire. What happened to us?" he asked, his voice escalating in volume.

"Hush," the woman spoke, putting her hand on his arm. "My name is Melody in the Moonlight, and I think what Cold Fire means is why are we here?"

I couldn't answer either of them as I sat there in a bit of shock, frowning as I learned their names. Perhaps they had figured out a way to get the souls out of the bodies and reverse the insertions. Why else would they have soul names for a human body. Only parents did that with their children, and these people were obviously not children.

Sky was one step ahead of me though and walked swiftly over to one of our men standing by the door and took the flashlight for him. We had dimmed the lights for them while they slept to make it a bit easier when they woke up, but the lights were still a little bright for sensitive eyes. But they weren't bright enough to see if they were humans or not.

He turned on the flashlight and quickly shone the beam in Cold Fire's face. To my shock and surprise, a beam of silver light bounced off of them around the room. He repeated the same thing on Melody in the Moonlight's eyes and they had the same reaction.

"Where are the humans?" I asked them without really thinking.

"What?" Cold Fire asked, really confused by that point, I was sure. "What humans? What are you talking about? What kind of an operation is this?"

"I'm sorry sir, but are you sure that you don't have any sort of affiliation with humans of any sort?" Sky asked, saving my skin and I tuned back into the conversation.

"No! That is outrageous! There are no humans left on this planet, are there?" Cold Fire asked almost shouting at us.

"We already introduced ourselves, but we work for a special part of the government We have a special task force that allows us to track down any human resistance that is still on the planet. Yes, there are a few humans left, and we thought that you were part of them," I told them a little without giving too much away. "Are you sure that you have never seen a human?"

The both shook their heads and I almost threw up.

"I'm really sorry about the mix up. Would it be alright if you just showed us around that building that you were coming out of earlier?" Sky asked and they looked at each other before shrugging and Melody in the Moonlight nodded.

"Um, I suppose," she responded. "That stuff that you gave us to make us sleep won't hurt us, will it? I mean, that was pretty harsh of you to do that to us."

"We are so very sorry about that. Had we known that you weren't humans, we would have avoided this whole situation," I apologized to them and they both seemed to nod in understanding.

"We should go to the place now," Sky told me. "There's a car waiting out front."

"If you'll just follow me," I told the pair of them, gesturing towards the door. They both stood and followed me out and into the waiting car. The ride back to the warehouse was silent and I felt bad for putting these clearly innocent civilians through that.

In no time at all, we had arrived back where the van was parked outside of a warehouse. Melody in the Moonlight searched through her pockets before she found a key that was clearly to the building. I followed her and Cold Fire towards the door while Sky spoke to the men that were still stationed around it, briefing them on the change in plans. Sky caught up with us as we were about to go inside and whispered to me that they were going to check the van for the tracking device that had led us to that place.

Once we were inside the building, I looked around and saw that it had a few desks with two computers, printers and lots of paper and bookshelves everywhere. It was just a large, open space with stairs leading up to another level and nothing but that furniture was on the first level.

"We're editors and are collaborating on our first book together, that's why it's such a mess here. We try to work from home as much as possible, but we do have to go out and meet with other authors every once in awhile," Melody in the Moonlight explained and I nodded.

"Sounds like a very interesting career choice," I told them and they smiled at me.

"Would you like to see our living area upstairs?" Melody in the Moonlight asked and I smiled.

"That would be very lovely," I told her and she began to lead the way to the only set of stairs in the entire place.

Upstairs was completely different. It was very open and modern with only two doors leading off of the big space. The kitchen, living room, dining room and book nook it looked like were all open to each other and everything had very nice flow. The rooms were all different colors, but they went well together. It was very open and airy and nice.

"This is very beautiful," I complimented them and Melody in the Moonlight smiled.

"Thank you. I chose most of the pieces in here."

"And the pain colors," Cold Fire added and she nodded. "But I did all the handy work."

"Well it looks incredible," I told them and they thanked me again. "What is behind those doors?"

"This one," Melody in the Moonlight opened the first door that was closest to us, "Is our bathroom."

I looked inside and it was tiled with blue glass tiles, had a huge soaking tub and a shower, with double sinks under a huge mirror. Definitely no place to hid humans in there. They led us through the huge closet, which Sky walked around in, looking I'm sure for possible humans before we walked into their master bedroom. There was a bed that dominated the room and another bookshelf full of books and a couple of chairs to sit on. Otherwise, it was empty.

Cold Fire led us out back into the main room and around the corner into the little book area; and I noticed a door that I hadn't seen before.

"Up there is our piéce de résistence," he said, holding onto Melody in the Moonlight's hand as she opened the door and gestured for us to go through first.

I took the plunge and started walking up the stairs that were directly through the door. They led up to another door and when I opened it I found myself on top of the building under a little canopy that they had built. Underneath it was a table and chairs and a little farther down was a bar with a canopy over it and some lounge chairs.

"We love it up here," Melody in the Moonlight said as soon as she had emerged from the doorway.

I felt a little guilty that we had imposed upon these people and made them feel a little uncomfortable with the situation.

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened today and if there's anything that I can do..." I started to say but Cold Fire held up a hand to stop me.

"There was no harm done. I realize that you did what you had to do and I really do thank you for doing your job right. What you do is important to everyone and I appreciate your thoroughness to complete a job," Cold Fires said, holding out his hand for me to shake.

"Well, I'm still sorry," I said but he shrugged.

"No blood, no foul. I'm glad that we could at least put your minds at ease by showing you around, and I'm sorry about the mix up," he continued but I shook my head.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," I said and he smiled.

"Let's go back inside, it's starting to rain," Melody in the Moonlight suggested and we all headed back down.

Once back down on their living floor, I got a thumbs up from my men telling me that the place was clear. I then turned to the couple as I had to know,

"Have either of you been down south lately? In and around the state of Arizona?"

Melody in the Moonlight nodded. "We were down around there a little while ago. My sister was having her baby so we went down to a healing centre there and saw her, why?"

"Well we were able to track you here because there was a device attached to your van," I told them and a man stepped out and showed them the device that they had pulled off of it. "We had put it on another vehicle similar to your van and it was evidently moved and placed onto yours."

Their eyes opened wide as they realized how exactly we had gotten here.

"So this is really our mistake. I will take all of my men out of here right now and you can forget that this even happened," I told them and they nodded almost numbly. "Thank you for your time and I'm sorry that this had to happen," I said just as I was the last one to descend down the stairs.

Outside, I yelled for everyone to meet back at base and go back to what they were doing before. I ripped open the door to a truck and told the guy to get a ride in another car. Once he was out of my way, I hopped into the driver's seat as Sky jumped in the other side and peeled away from the curb. Neither of us said anything for a few moments as I drove through the streets. I was practically fuming mad by that point.

"How the hell did this happen?" I asked and Sky didn't answer. I hadn't wanted him to either.

"After all of our careful planning and everything, we are still no closer to finding these damned humans than we were before. You made sure that you put it on the right van, right?"

"Ye.. yes sir, I did. We managed to follow them all the way to St. Joseph's remember? It must have been after that when we weren't watching the monitor as much when they had made the switch over."

"Well then what could have gone wrong?"

"A whole slew of things, sir. They could have switched vans, or just simply taken it off or..."

"Thank you," I said to him in a steely voice, ending his ramblings.

After a few moments, I dug around in my pocket for my hand held monitor, throwing it at Sky as I merged onto the Westbound highway, switching on my GPS at the same time.

"Check it."

"What..."

"CHECK IT!" I yelled at him. "MAKE SURE THAT THAT DOT IS STILL AROUND THAT ADDRESS IN SEATTLE!"

"Alright, okay," he said, while switching it on and waiting for it to boot up.

Just as I had finished plugging in the address for Cloud Spinner's house; and was getting a little nerved that he hadn't said anything yet when Sky finally spoke.

"It's there. She's still in the house," he said quickly.

"Good. Keep your flipping eye on that dot. I mean it. I'm not letting her get away from me too."

"What do you mean, sir?"

I gave him the stink eye before answering. "They must be on to us if they managed to move the tracking device off of the van. Who says that they won't go for the girl next? We need to get there as soon as possible and stake out her house. They'll return for her sooner or later."

"Are you sure about this?"

"No. But after today's catastrophe, I have to do _something_ to save my neck."

"I'm sorry about that..."

"It wasn't your fault. Watch that dot."

**Mel POV**

After watching the house with the drawn curtains for almost two hours, I was growing very impatient; after ten minutes I was going bonkers, but this was over the top. I was hungry and tired and just wanted to sleep, but if I missed anything I would regret it.

"Can't we just go up there and knock? It would be better than just sitting here," Jamie asked and I shook my head.

"She'll come out soon," I replied and heard him sight.

"You've been saying that for awhile now, Mel. Are you sure?" Jared asked, putting a hand on my arm.

"Of course I'm sure. She can't stay in there forever," I answered simply, training my binoculars on the front window. "I see movement."

"Where?" Jamie asked, sitting straight up in between us and leaning forwards trying to see better.

"Behind the blue curtain in the upstairs window," I said and he sighed.

"Mel, I can't see up that far, you know that. And who says that it means anything. So she's moving around," he said, but I smacked him so he's stop.

"Oh my gosh, the front door," I simply said and the van was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop.

Sure enough, after all our waiting and everything the front door to the house opened up again. This time though, Wanda didn't have a coat or shoes on, nor did she lock the door after stepping outside. Instead, she sat down on the first step of the porch and pulled her knees up to her chest before wrapping her arms around them and putting her head down. I knew that she only assumed that position if she was crying.

"We've got to go out there," I said, putting the binoculars down and putting my hand on the door handle.

"No Mel," I heard Jared say, but I still started to open the door until I felt his hand on mine that was opening the door. I looked and he had leaned right over top of me to do that.

"Why not?"

"Because Mel, you can't just go walking up the street in the middle of the day, you never know who might see you," he said, looking into my eyes and trying to plead with me.

"Wanda will see me. It will be fine, Jared. I need to go out there, she's crying. That's what she looks like when she's crying. Trust me on this, I'll be fine," I reasoned with him, but he still shook his head.

"I can't lose you," Jared said, touching our noses together.

"And you won't," I replied, trying to open the door again but I couldn't with his strong hand on mine. "Nothing will happen to me."

"You can't know that..."

"But I do. Let me go out there."

I could see it in his eyes that I was winning and he eventually sat back, allowing me to open the door and jump out. I heard his door slam behind me and turned to say something to him, but found Jared's lips pressed up against mine instead. I kissed him back until I heard Jamie clear his voice behind us and I turned to him with my finger pointed.

"No, you get back in the van," I whisper yelled at him and Jamie shook his head.

"This was my idea, I'm coming along," he whispered back.

"Jamie..."

"He can stay in the shadows with me," Jared said and I sighed. I wasn't going to win this one.

"Fine," I relented, starting to walk away from them.

"Give us a signal when it's clear," Jared instructed before turning me around to kiss me again. I smiled and backed out of our cover of trees starting to cross the street to Wanda. Once I was about halfway to her house, I broke out into a run.

She must have heard the heavy footsteps on the pavement as she lifted her head up when I was almost at the driveway. I thought about cutting across the grass, but I didn't want to leave footsteps on the perfectly cut lawn. As I ran towards her, I didn't know who I was going to be faced with, but it didn't matter; this was the moment of truth that we had come all that way for.

I got to the bottom of the stairs and stopped, panting heavily as I stared at the girl in front of me and she looked back. I saw a smile on her lips and tears in her eyes and I knew that I had been right; she had been crying.

"Mel?" she asked me and I nodded.

"Wanda?"

My heart was pounding as I waited for a response from her. She stood up and looked down at me before stepping down the two steps in between us. Once she reached the bottom she nodded.

"It's me Mel, it's Wanda," she choked out before bursting into tears.

I quickly crossed the space between us and wrapped the smaller girl up in my arms. I couldn't help but to shed some tears of my own as I embraced Wanda and her body shook with her own tears. I was so happy that we had found her and that it was Wanda and not Pet.

"I swear to you it's me, Mel; it really is," she said between sobs and I held her tighter.

"I know it is, Wanda. I believe you," I told her and she nodded into my chest, wrapping her arms back around me.

"Let's go inside, we can talk better in there," I suggested and she nodded before letting go of me and starting up the stairs. As I climbed them behind her, I turned around to where I knew Jared and Jamie were hiding and gave a big thumbs up sign and nodded my head, hoping that they understood what I mean. I then followed Wanda into the house, more determined than ever to get her out of there and back home with us.

**A/N: 7053 words not including a/n's, and I wrote most of it today. :)**

**Okay. The last week was midterm week, and I don't have a midterm exam for any of my classes, I just have a lot of projects. I tried to get a lot done before this week so that I'd still have time to write, but that didn't happen. I had 2 projects due and on Monday got an e-mail from a teacher telling us that our midterm evaluations for our placements were due on the Thursday. On every paper that we had gotten from that class, it said 'due after reading week'. So I spent 3 days busting my butt to complete that 50 page package on top of putting the finishing touches on 2 projects. Then I go to hand in the package and she tells us that she didn't want it till after reading week. Gahr.**

**Sorry about my little rant, it was just realllly frustrating.**

**Next chapter will be done by Thurs/Friday as it's my fall reading week this week and I have virtually nothing to do..**

**Thanks for your continued support!  
Review : )**


	30. Getting Out

**The chapter that you've been waiting for... the moment of truth. Will she get out of there? Dun dun dun!**

**Thanks to HOLLYZ, WhiteCamellia, TeamIanandEdward, brokenfromthepast, TopKat90, piccolover22, RawSugarX23, kimmitwilight, sunnyskye., AliceLuvsU, hanaharoo, winky23, islandofdreams, Raineplz, iamnicolecullen and anmapamo for your awesome reviews! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

As I was leading Mel into the house, I saw out of the corner of my eye that she made some sort of gesture towards the still open door before following me inside.

"What was that for?" I asked her and she frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"That little hand thing you just did. Is there someone else out there?" I clarified and she smiled.

"Yeah, there's someone else out there; I was just letting him know that everything was good and it's you in here," she told me with a smile.

"Is Ian out there?" I knew that it was a long shot and that I shouldn't get my hopes up, but a part of me still hoped that he would be out there with her. I could tell by the way her face dropped that he wasn't.

"No, Ian's not there. I. There's something we need to tell you about—" I interrupted her before I heard more about him. My heart was already in pain because he wasn't with her and I didn't need to hear any more.

"Who is it then?" I asked, leading her through to the kitchen.

"Jamie and Jared," she responded, looking at the door as it opened and closed again. A few seconds later two figures entered the room and one of them came flying at me. As soon as Jamie's body collided with mine, I thought I was going to fall over from the impact, but he managed to hold our ground.

"Wanda, I can't believe that it's really you! I was right all along, wasn't I Jared?" Jamie seemed clearly excited to be right about something and Jared reluctantly nodded his head.

"I told them that it was still you out there and convinced them to come with me and check. We just had to know, Wanda, and I know that it seems bad and everything, but..."

"I'm sorry about that, I really am," I apologized while brushing away some of the hair that had fallen into Jamie's face. "I just. I didn't mean for anything really bad to happen, but I guess that wasn't the case."

"Wanda don't feel bad," Jamie told me, giving me a weak smile. "You did what you had to do."

I started to shake my head in protest, but Mel interrupted my argument before it even got started.

"Why don't we go and sit down to talk about everything. We've got some stuff to tell you, and I'm sure you can tell us something too. Like why that ugly-ass thing is on your arm," she suggested and I nodded.

I saw Jamie frown as he noticed my cuff for the first time, his eyes silently questioning me, but I rolled my eyes and smiled. Despite the circumstances that we were all in, I was really happy to see them again. I suggested that we all go and sit in Pet's room since it was at the back of the house, and I locked and armed the front door before taking them upstairs. Halfway up, I heard a loud whisper from behind me and when I turned around I noticed the look of sheer panic on Jared's face. He began to tug on Mel's arm, but she shook her head and tried to pull it away from him.

"What's going on?" I asked, frowning at his sudden change in demeanour.

"Well, it's just that. Where are the other people that live here? When will they be back? Is there any chance of us getting stuck in here? I don't want anything to happen to us," Jared said in a rushed voice and I understood his concerns.

"Jared, it's okay," I told him, but he didn't relax at all; his hand was still poised to yank on Mel's arm if need be. "Trust me. Cloud Spinner is the only one who lives here too; I have no idea where Pet's father is, and she's gone until Sunday on a business trip halfway around the world!"

"She could be back at any moment, you have no idea though," he argued, but I held up the phone that I kept in my pocket in case she called, so that I wouldn't miss it.

"It's only Friday, Jared; we'll be fine. And trust me, if she was coming home any earlier, she would certainly let me know. She takes 'over protective' to a whole new level. Those deadbolts on the door and the alarm system are a dead give away," I told him, re-pocketing the phone and carrying on up the stairs.

I walked into Pet's pink explosion of a room and heard someone behind me; probably Mel, gasp at the sight of it.

"It's ridiculous, yes?" I said, going over and sitting on one end of the pink loveseat that was a fairly new addition thanks to Cloud Spinner.

"Uh, yes," Mel replied, sitting down beside me while Jared reluctantly sat on the other side of her. We were a little squished, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. Jamie pulled over the chair from Pet's desk and sat in it.

"I honestly can't say that I've ever seen anything this pink before," Mel said honestly and I nodded.

"Doesn't it revolt you?" Jared asked and I could see the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Absolutely," I answered.

"It's like living in a Pepto Bismal bottle," Mel concluded and I had to laugh.

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to think of the colour pink in the same way again," Jamie said, shaking his head as he looked down at the pink chair he was sitting on.

"Alright, enough. Let's get down to business. I want to hear exactly what's been happening, and then we'll share with you," Mel started to say and I nodded. "I want to do this a quick as possible so that we can get you out of here."

"Well we can't go anywhere too fast," I mumbled and she frowned.

"Why the hell not? We've got the van parked not a block away and I'm sure that it'll be fine to get you out of here undetected if we leave in the middle of the night and..."

I cut her off by shaking my head and wordlessly holding out my cuffed wrist to her.

"It's got a tracking device in it," I whispered, looking down so that I could avoid the looks on their faces. "It can't hear me or anything, but it can track me wherever I go."

"What?" Jared said, his voice sounding harsher than it was a few minutes before. "So it knows that we're here?"

"No, it knows that _I'm_ here," I corrected, still looking away. "It only tracks my movements, not anyone else's."

"How do you know that?" he questioned and I shrugged.

"It's part of my story," I said.

"Start talking, Wanda," Mel instructed and I nodded. I knew that I'd have to explain this all in due time, but I still wasn't exactly prepared for it. I was more scared and afraid of their reactions, and I feared that they'd leave me here with this cuff on my wrist forever once they'd heard what I had to say. I nearly felt sick to my stomach at the thought.

Instead of thinking about it any more, I began to explain what had happened to me since that day when I had screwed everything up and torn us all apart. I told them about Red Fires and Sky, and all about the cuff, as well as Cloud Spinner's arrival and her taking me all the way back to Seattle. I then told them about my time begin Pet and how I hated it so much.

"That's basically it," I tried to sum it all up. "I hate it here, and I just want to go home."

On the last word that I spoke, my voice broke and my throat was sore from holding back my tears; I was determined not to cry in front of them about this. I hated being weak, and I was really trying to stick with my promise to myself about not crying over the situation any longer. Even as I felt Melanie's arms around me, I willed myself to keep it together. It became harder once I actually looked up at her and saw that she was openly crying.

I noticed that Jared had an arm wrapped securely around her and was sort of pulling her closer and a pang of jealously shot through my chest at the fact that she still had someone to hold onto her that way. Immediately after that I felt horrible though. Technically it was my fault that Ian hadn't come out here, even though I didn't know what was going on with him, but I knew that it would have had something to do with what went on that day. Therefore, I resisted the urge to hug her to comfort Mel, especially since I didn't exactly know what she was feeling.

I looked up at Jamie's face and I wasn't entirely able to read his expression. He was biting the inside of his lip and seemed to be digesting what I had just told them. No one said anything for awhile and that scared me a bit. I tried to prepare myself in those moments of silence for the second that they would leave the room and run out the front door, leaving me here. I would have certainly deserved that, if nothing else.

"It's certainly enlightening to hear what has been happening to you," Jared started to say and I noticed that his arm tightened around Mel. "But why would you do that? Wouldn't it have been better for us all if you had just come with us and not stayed behind?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head. This was also harder to understand.

"If I hadn't done anything, and not said anything or tried to stay with you all, something else would have happened; something worse than what did." I held up my hand to stop Jared as I saw his mouth opening; I had started so I had to finish without interruptions.

I told them the rest of my reasoning for it and Mel gave me a tight smile while Jamie sighed.

"I understand why you did it, but I still think that it was wrong, Wanda," I hung my head, waiting to hear the rest. "But still. I know that you did what you thought was best. I suppose that it would have been better if we had had some sort of plan should something like that have ever had happened so that we weren't so surprised when it did happen."

"It would have been pointless," Jamie said and we all looked to him. "If we had to plan it so that someone with a soul still in them had to be given up like that," he winced at that, "the only ones able to do that are you and Sunny. And I believe that if we had a plan or something; neither Ian nor Kyle would have agreed to it at all. I mean, look at what this has done to Ian already and..."

"Enough," Jared's voice cut through the air. I had looked up at Jamie when he hinted that Ian wasn't doing so well, desperate for more information and I was sure that he would have given it to me if Jared hadn't stopped him.

"Why? Why can't she know what's going on with Ian? It's her right to know, even if he does..."

"I will tell her," Mel said in a decisive way, effectively stopping Jamie. He nodded and Jared unravelled himself from around Mel, standing up and motioning with his head for Jamie to follow him out of the room. They closed the door and Mel leaned closer, pulling me into a hug.

"I'm sorry that all that happened to you," she whispered and I shrugged.

"It was my fault that it did."

"No, it wasn't." She pushed me away to look directly at my face. "Wanda, you should not be punished by anyone for having silver eyes. That's not fair, nor is it your fault. If anything, this entire mess and everything that led up to it was mine. If... if I had never convinced you to go and find Jared and Jamie again, you wouldn't have had to worry about anything to do with humans."

"Stop it," I told her, shaking my head. "I don't want you to take the blame for this either; that's just as wrong. But still. I guess we can't really point the blame, but it's done and it happened. There's no way that we can go back and fix it, so all we have to do is move forward, right?"

"Right," Mel nodded, but I could tell that something was off.

"What were you going to tell me that Jared and Jamie had to leave the room for?" I asked, remembering why we were left alone in the first place.

"Oh, yeah. About that..." she trailed off, rubbing her hand on her neck and I noticed that she was still wearing the engagement ring. I was happy about that because I didn't want this situation to come between her and Jared, messing up their future. That was one thing that I couldn't handle carrying with me on my shoulders.

"Um, where do you want me to start?" she asked, looking away from me and I bit my lip. Obviously whatever she had to tell me wouldn't be good, because she was reluctant to start talking.

"Why didn't Ian come with you guys?" I started her off with something that I felt was relatively easy.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain. We sort of asked him to come along, but he declined the offer without a really good reason and whatever. Plus, he's been really moody and stuff, even though he talked to me and Kyle and all. I don't know if going back out of the caves would have honestly served him any good," she admitted and I nodded, though I still got the vibe that she wasn't exactly telling me everything.

"He hates me, doesn't he?" I asked in a small voice, already knowing the answer.

"No, no honey he doesn't hate you," Mel said, moving closer to me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders so I had no choice but to lean into her. "He's just confused about the whole thing, I swear. He doesn't know what is true and what isn't, and doesn't know what to believe. But trust me, once we get you back down to the caves and you two have a little chat, he'll be all good and back to normal again."

"You really think so?" I asked and she hit my shoulder.

"Of course I do. I wasn't born yesterday, you know," she replied and I had to smile.

"If I ever want to get out of here though, I have to get this damned cuff off. I think that it's like, I dunno, permanently stuck or something since everything that I've tried hasn't worked at all."

Melanie held my wrist and brought the offending cuff up to her face so she could see it. I could see her frowning as she examined it very closely before shrugging.

"Let's go show Jared; I'm sure that he can come up with something that can get it off. He's good at thinking of new things, and I can't imagine that you've had too many new ideas trying to think of them all by yourself," she teased, standing up off the couch and pulling me up with her.

"No, I haven't," I admitted, following her lead as she started to walk from the room. "I've exhausted all of my ideas and can't think of any more."

"Let's just see what Jared thinks, like I said," Mel replied, practically bounding down the stairs before me. By the time I got into the kitchen, she was wrapped up in Jared's arms while he stood there smiling at me.

"What do I think about what?" he asked, hugging Mel tight.

"We need to get that cuff off of Wanda's wrist before we can bust her out of the house, any ideas?" Mel asked him and Jared immediately started thinking; I could tell by the look on his face.

"Can't we just take her and figure it out on the way?" Jamie asked and we all shook our heads.

"No Jamie, there's no telling if they'll follow us just because of it," I told him and he rolled his eyes. Whatever.

"Again," Jared said and I frowned at him.

"What do you mean 'again'?" I asked and he sighed.

"I might have found a tracking thing on the bottom of the van a little while ago, but I didn't tell anyone," he said and Mel turned in his arms.

"What?!" she practically screeched and I knew that he was in for it.

**Jared POV**

I knew that I shouldn't have kept it from anyone; especially Mel, but there really was no proper time to tell anyone about it. I sighed before looking down at Mel and beginning to tell her.

"After... the incident at the hospital," I said, trying to make it as light as possible, "when we were back at the car unloading stuff from the van, do you remember that one of the bags fell out and rolled under the van?"

She nodded, urging me to continue with her eyes.

"Well while I was under the van fishing the bag out, I noticed that something was on the bottom of the van that I sure didn't remember putting there. I grabbed a hold of it and it came off the van. I stayed under there a second while I looked it over and noticed a few little pulsing red lights coming from it. I figured that whatever it was, we certainly didn't want it on the bottom of our van. I brought the bag back over to you and put it in the car, and right before we got into the van I stuck it to the bottom of another van that was parked beside ours. Once we had gotten away from that place and were closer to home, I realized that it must have been some sort of tracker, and that was why all of that had conveniently happened to us right then and there," I finished, looking down at her.

"That sounds like something Red Fires and Sky would do," Wanda said, looking away uncomfortably before her eyes widened in shock.

"What? What is it, Wanda?" I asked in panic, looking around for the source of the expression on her face.

"We... we have to hurry! It's been like two weeks since that day and there's no telling whether or not they've caught on to the fact that you switched it over to another van or not! I... oh man," she explained, starting to pace the kitchen space she was in. "If they figure it out then they'll come and check on me next, to make sure that I'm here!"

"Have they been here? Are they here now?" I asked, sufficiently panicked for all of our safety.

"No, no if they had come, they would have knocked on the front door and come in; they wouldn't sit outside and spy on me like before," she said before looking down at her arm. "The cuff; this stupid cuff! We _have_ to get this off right now!"

"Okay, calm down Wanda," Jamie said, going over and catching her arm to stop her from moving. "What have you tried to do so far?"

"I... um. That was you all in the big blue van this morning then?" she asked and we nodded. "Okay, then when I went to the store I bought and tried out everything! I had vegetable oil and baby oil and butter and eggs and anything else that's slippery. I even tried the shampoo that I bought just because I was out of things to try!"

"Alright, okay. Let's just think of other things we could try," Jamie said, opening cupboards around the room looking for things.

"How come it won't slide off? Are the things that you tried just not slippery enough?" Mel asked and she shrugged.

"I can't imagine that oils or butter wouldn't be very slippery," I pointed out, wondering why none of those did the trick.

"It just sort of stops when I pull it forward like this," Wanda said while demonstrating how it stopped on the bone that stuck out a little from her where her thumb connected to her hand. I glanced down at my own, seeing that it might have been a problem, but the average person who didn't have something stuck on it wouldn't have thought anything of it.

I stepped forwards to Wanda and gently took her wrist so that I could see the thing up close for myself. If it was made of a new material, it would certainly make things a lot more difficult than I wanted them to be. I began tugging and twisting it to see if there was anything that I could do to just find another sort of way to slide it off without hurting her a lot. I frowned once it was clear that none of my efforts was doing anything but causing some redness on her hand.

"Jared, don't break her wrist off," Mel warned and I shook my head, rolling my eyes at how she could think that I would do that to anyone, let alone sweet little Wanda.

"I'm not going to, it's just that this thing is really stuck," I heard Wanda stifle a giggle and ignored it. "It only needs like another, I dunno not even a half inch to expand to get it to get it over this bump on your thumb," I told her and she nodded. "Or we could break it."

I knew that it would get a reaction out of Melanie, but I was really just kidding. Sure enough, she began to yell at me almost as soon as those words left my mouth.

"Jared!" Mel yelled and I did nothing but shrug. Sometimes it was best to just let her yell it out.

"Honestly Mel, I'm open to anything, I just need this off," Wanda spoke up and I tensed. There was no way that I would ever do that to her unless it was absolutely dire. Even then, I would have an issue with it; like when she had me hit her face with a rock way back when. Melanie began to shake her head and pointed her little dainty finger at Wanda.

"Oh no, don't you go buying into that last stupid plan. There is _no way_ that I can take you back to the caves with a broken thumb." That was very true. They would be in uproar over that; well, the ones who knew.

"But if we get it fixed before then, they would have no clue what would have happened," Wanda argued and Mel shook her head again. I thought that it would be best just to let them have their little tussle before either Jamie or I stepped in to keep the peace. It was better that way.

"No flipping way Wanda. I'm not letting you guys do that. What if you're wanted by then? You can't just waltz into a hospital and ask to have it fixed! We'd have to take you back to the caves and have Doc fix it," she pointed out and I could see her point; I hoped that Wanda could too. "Not to mention that despite what Ian thinks, he would fucking lose his shit if you came back in any kind of condition like that."

"Yeah but—" I decided that that was enough, so I clapped my hand over Wanda's mouth. I didn't want this to continue any longer, especially since we had no idea if these trackers of Wanda's were coming to the house or not. We really had to get a move on if we wanted to avoid them.

"Alright you two, I'm not breaking anyone's thumb here, it was just a dumb suggestion," I said, letting go of Wanda's mouth. "But we really need to think of something to help Wanda out. So far nothing slippery has helped, and I don't think that it will because of the way that it's stopping. What is something else that we could do?"

Wanda simply shrugged and shook her head. "I'm completely out of ideas; this is on you guys now."

She sunk down into a chair while I looked down at Mel who was still slightly glaring at me. I offered her a smile and could see her resolve crumbling, so I opened my arms for her. Mel hugged me close to her and I pressed my face into the top of her hair while trying to think of something.

"What is it that heat does?" she mumbled into my shirt.

"Hm? What do you mean?" I asked her and she lifted her head to look up at me. I resisted the urge to lean down and kiss her nose for Wanda's sake, as I knew that she would have been really hurting while being away from Ian like that.

"What is it that heat does when it comes into contact with metal? Did you ever get to that unit in science?" she asked again and I nodded.

"Course I did; that doesn't mean that I remember though," I teased and she rolled her eyes.

"Doesn't it expand?" Jamie piped up from behind us and I thought about it.

"I think it does," I agreed and Mel's face lit up like a candle.

"Then all we have to do is heat up that metal band and it will slide off. You said that it only needed less than half an inch in order to get it off, right?" I nodded. "Then we'll just have to find something hot and then slide it off."

"Time out," Wanda said I looked over to her. "What are we going to use to heat it up?"

"What about water?" I suggested and they both looked at me. "What happens when you're in the shower under hot water? Does it seem bigger?"

"I... I dunno," Wanda answered. "I've never tried it in there before."

"Well, let's go," Mel announced and broke free from my arms before tugging Wanda's arm and rushing her out of the room.

"You two start thinking of other things in case this doesn't work," she demanded of Jamie and I. I saluted her while Jamie just nodded.

"Alright Jamie, you got anything else?" I asked, turning to him and we began to think of something else.

**Red Fires POV**

I had driven all through the rest of the day and it was barely evening and it still hadn't gotten us very far. We had left those non-humans in Rochester and I still had at least another full day of driving to get to Seattle; probably more, since we had barely just gotten to Chicago. My stupid GPS said that it would only take about 39 hours to get there, but it hadn't accounted for _any_ type of traffic. I was considering making Sky drive, but I wanted to do this myself. I still felt a little anger at the fact that the whole plan was wasted because we hadn't even found the right people. If the next part got screwed up in any way, my ass was on the line.

It would only be a matter of time now. I just wanted to see that Pet was still where we had left her and nothing had changed. I couldn't imagine why those humans would want to bust her out of there anyways; it wasn't like they were nice to her or anything after they'd left her alone in St. Joseph's. Clearly they were just using her for their own personal gain, according to the story that Pet had told us.

I wanted to keep this girl as safe as possible, and I knew that I was probably overreacting, but I still had to check. Sky started to stir out of his sleep then and turned to me.

"Do you want me to drive?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No, go back to sleep."

"Bur sir, you're very tired; I can tell—"

"I'm fine," I told him and he shrugged, going back to looking out the window.

"We'll be there soon anyways," I said but he didn't reply.

**Wanda POV**

After my shower, I came out into Pet's bedroom shaking my head. It didn't seem to matter how many times, or which way I tugged it under the hot water the stupid thing didn't want to budge. I came out towelling off my hair shaking my head at Melanie who was lying on Pet's bed.

"Are you kidding? Alright," she sighed. "Let's go back down and see what else they've come up with."

I followed her back down to where Jared and Jamie were sitting in the kitchen with cups of water in front of them.

"Any luck?" Jamie asked and I shook my head. "Damn it."

"I know," I said, grabbing two more cups and handing one to Mel, opening the fridge for the water filter. "It's flipping frustrating!"

"Well, we've come up with some more solutions," Jared said and I nodded for him to continue. "Do you have a blow torch around here?"

"Please tell me that was a joke. Please Jared, so that I don't throttle you. Or cut you off," Mel threatened as I handed her a glass of water.

"Well, um. Yeah, it was a joke," Jared said, stuttering and I rolled my eyes at how he tried to cover that up.

"No, we don't have one," I told him, trying to put some of her fear of his idea at ease.

As soon as I sat down at the table with them, Cloud Spinner's phone in my pocket began to vibrate and ring and I noticed that Jared sat up straighter on high alert but I waved him off and pulled it out to answer.

"Shush you guys, it's Pet's mom," I told them before opening it and walking out of the kitchen into the dining room for some more quiet.

"Hi Cloud Spinner," I said and listened for her to continue.

After another ten minute discussion with her about how I was still fine and nothing had happened and that the house hadn't burned down or anything. I conveniently left out the bit about Mel, Jared and Jamie sitting in the kitchen and how we were all working to bust me out of there. I returned to the kitchen and they were all sitting there in silence. Finally, Jamie reached out and held my hand in his, smiling. I returned the smile and gave his hand a small squeeze.

"Is everything okay?" he asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, it was just one of her regular check-ins to make sure that I'm not gone or anything," I said, shrugging.

"So what are you going to do when you're gone and not answering the phone?" Mel asked and I was stumped.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"Well, we can make a tape recording or something, right? I mean, you didn't say a whole lot when you were on the phone with her, so it wouldn't be that hard," she said but Jamie shook his head.

"That's too difficult to do in such a short amount of time, you know," he pointed out. "That would take days of intricate planning and things to do because the timing and everything when the phone rings and everything would be difficult to do in like a few hours."

"That's true," I said. "Or, I just carry the phone with me and answer whenever she phones until we know that she's stateside and then we ditch it."

"Not a chance," Jared said. "There's no telling whether or not they could still follow us with that, and if we were back, or anywhere near the caves when she got back, that could be disastrous."

"So what do we do then?" I asked.

"Just forget about it right now, we have more pressing issues to deal with right now," Mel said and I didn't answer, simply taking a drink of water instead.

We decided to call it a day then and I set everyone up with somewhere to sleep, though they all insisted on sleeping in Pet's pink room; Mel claimed that since she had the opportunity, she wasn't giving it up for anything. They were all surprised when Cloud Spinner called twice before we all went to bed, and I was grateful that they were silent, so she wasn't alerted to anything. I hoped that with a night of sleep, we would be able to come up with something else.

The next morning we woke up with no new ideas, so we hung around the house and did a puzzle in the living room, playing Scrabble at times too. There wasn't much to do, I realized, without tv that they were interested in. I would be thankful to get back to the caves and do some work instead of sitting around a house all day. I went and got drinks for everyone and settled back down in my place on the floor afterwards.

"Make sure that you bring some board games with you, Wanda," Jamie said. "It's been awhile since we've had them and I'm sure that everyone would love them."

"Okay, why don't you go get some and leave them by the front door for us to take," I suggested and he took off. Once he got back, Jared cleared his throat as I took a sip of my drink.

"I've had another idea," Jared said and I looked at him from over the top of my glass. "We could try and heat it up with the engine in the van and you know; you could just stick your hand in there and warm it up and I bet that it would slide right off."

"I think that I'd rather break my thumb than stick my hand in a running engine," I told him and he smiled.

"I can appreciate that. There are a lot of moving parts in there and stuff," he said still smiling and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Honestly, we need to do something, I can't stand sitting here another minute in this house," Jamie exclaimed and we all looked at him. "Why don't we just go with the other one that you came up with?"

"You're crazy, you're still crazy," Mel said to the two of them while I sat there feeling very confused and out of the loop.

"What's the plan? I'll do it. I'm open to anything, I don't care by this point, I just want out of here!" I told them, honestly willing to do absolutely anything.

"Well, it involves a lot of heat, but it would be controllable, and you could stop at any point; I just wanted to make that clear," Jared started off and I could see that Mel was itching to step in and stop this, but she obviously had no choice in the matter.

"Just tell me."

"Okay. Well, I figured that if you held your hand over one of the burners on the stove, then it would generate enough heat to probably expand that little bracelet of yours just enough to get it up and over so that it would finally come off."

I thought it over for a second, internally weighing the pros and cons before I made a decision.

"How will we get it off though? Won't it be too hot to touch?"

"I found some gloves in the cupboard that will work. I tried them over the hottest setting on the stove earlier and I barely felt the heat. I don't know where you guys would have gotten them or what they're even made of, but they will work," he replied, throwing down Cloud Spinner's oven mitts onto the table in front of him.

"They work really well because they're made of a really strong material that they made oven mitts from these days," I answered. "It's so that no one could ever burn themselves on anything, ever. And..." I looked at Mel and Jamie's face before saying what they wanted to hear.

"I'll do it."

With that, I sealed my fate. Jared started moving directly after those words came out of my mouth, turning on the burners on the stove. Jamie hugged me before going and looking through the cupboards for another pair of mitts. Mel was still silent.

"Are you upset with me?" I asked her and she shook her head a little and smiled.

"No, I'm not. I just really don't want to see you get hurt at all, Wanda. Even burning yourself like this."

"Watch," I told her.

I grabbed one of the oven mitts off the table and put it on as I walked over to where Jared was standing by the stove. I checked the settings on the one burner that he had turned on, making sure that it was on the highest setting before I looked back and made sure that Melanie was watching me. I smiled as I planted my hand down on the burner before I heard a shriek from behind me. I turned to see Mel racing across the kitchen towards me, panic written all over her face.

"Your glove is smoking!" she shouted before pulling my hand off of the stove.

"It's fine!" I told her, turning the glove over and showing her. "There's just a bit of caked on old food there that burns a little. It's okay!" I tried to reassure her, but she still looked like she was going to kill me."

"Come here," Jared instructed, reaching for my arm and trying to tuck the mitt under my cuff so that it was only the outer bits that would be in direct contact with the burner.

"Ready?" Jamie asked and I nodded, sticking my hand out over the hot burner.

We waited for a few minutes and watched with bated breath as the cuff began to heat off. Every couple of seconds, Jared would reach over and tug on the cuff a little bit with the other pair of oven mitts on, seeing if it would budge at all; it finally started to move. I smiled the biggest smile of my life when I saw it move forward just a fraction of an inch; all those weeks of waiting were finally paying off and I was a little closer to what I wanted the most.

"You're smoking again," Jamie warned but I just waved my hand at him.

"It's fine, we're almost there," I said, watching as Jared edged it forward a bit more. I tucked my thumb around towards my palm to try and make it a little easier for him to maneuver it around when I saw the glow on the underside of the glove.

"Shit. Get your hand out of there," Mel said in my ear and if we weren't so close to getting it off, I would have listened to her.

"No, we're so close," I objected as Jared saw the flame on the bottom and tried even harder to rip it off of my hand.

"Wanda, really it's not worth it!" Jamie yelled then and his hand came down on my arm to pull it away from the burner, but I held it in place. "Please!"

"I'm fine," I half-yelled at him, flipping my hand over to heat up the top of the cuff as well, while Jared patted on the flame to put it out. Unfortunately, flipping it over was probably the worst thing I could have done, for it just gave the flame more air and ignited it further; it was now growing a bit bigger and I was becoming a little more panicked.

"Jared," I said to him, my voice growing higher as I watched the flames get a little bigger.

"It's fine, it's fine; I've almost got it," he shouted and I nodded.

"But I can feel the heat through these gloves, it's getting hotter and it shouldn't be!"

"Because your freeking glove is on fire, Wanda. Enough you guys, I don't want her getting burned!" Mel practically screeched, but we ignored her as Jared looked me in the eye and I nodded.

I braced myself, pulling my arm and body weight back against Jared, who had both of his hands on the heated cuff, effectively smothering the small flame as well. With one last final pull, I was sent flying backwards as the force of the cuff popping off of my arm was enough to topple me down. I felt arms around me as Jamie tried to catch me, but I ended up taking him down as well.

"Jamie, I'm sorry," I tried to apologize, but Mel yanked me up.

"Forget about that, he's fine. Get over here and get that damned glove off!" she yelled, ripping it from my arm while Jared turned off the stove and she shoved my hand under the cold water. "Jesus."

I looked down to see that it was red and looked sore and painful, but it really wasn't at all. I tried convincing her that I was fine, but she just told me to shut it and held my hand under the water despite my protests.

"Okay, we've got to go," Jared said, still holding the probably hot cuff in a gloved hand. "Jamie, go up and get the bag off of Wanda's floor and meet us down here. I'll figure out what to do with this," he instructed, running off into the dining room while Jamie picked himself up off the floor and ran out of the room as well.

"I'm sorry Mel," I said and she just hugged me with her free arm that wasn't holding my one under the water.

"It's okay. I'm just glad that you're relatively unharmed," she said, kissing my cheek.

"I'm fine, don't worry," I told her while looking down at my still red hand.

"Okay, I've got it," Jamie yelled from the front hall and Mel turned off the water, handing me a towel.

"Let's just get out of here, we can have Doc look at it once we're back at home," she said, pulling me to the front hall where we met the boys.

"Jared, come on!" Jamie called out to him. "What are you doing with that stupid cuff anyways?"

"I've caught him so that we can keep him moving through the house so that there's movement on these guys' screen or something," Jared told us, coming out of the garage with a little bunny. I could see that he had just tied the cuff onto the back of it and let it down out of his arms.

"No one will hurt a cute bunny," Jamie said, petting it.

"Exactly," Jared said, opening the front door. "Let's go."

I set my phone down on the table in the front before shutting the front door. Once we were all outside, we kept to the shadows of the house; I hadn't even realized that it was nearly dusk, but that just made it that much better for us to sneak away. We were a few houses away from Pet's when we heard the roar of an engine and saw the headlights reflect off of a house window. I felt Jamie's hand on my head, forcing me to lie flat on the ground with the others as the car pulled into the driveway down the street. Once it settled, we were up and moving again.

It didn't take us very long to reach the van and we all flung ourselves in it, none of us daring to speak. Jared started it and eased us out of the spot where it was hiding and out onto the main road. They key was getting out without being noticed. We made it out of Pet's subdivision and onto the main road before I allowed myself to actually breathe.

"We're not out of the clear yet, don't get comfortable," Mel whispered her warning back to Jamie and I.

"We know," I answered before we fell into silence again.

Jared took us out of Seattle and onto the main highway headed south before we spoke again.

"We did it!" Mel shouted and danced in her seat.

"I'm so glad that we actually went through with this, now we've got you back, Wanda!" Jamie hollered while hugging me tight. "You have no idea how much I missed you."

"Oh Jamie, I missed you so much too," I told him, kissing the top of his head.

I was so happy that I didn't even give a second though to what would actually happen once I actually got back to the caves; what Ian would say or think or anything. I didn't care.

**Red Fires POV**

We arrived at Cloud Spinner and Pet's house just after the sun set and I parked in the driveway, just sitting there for a few moments to get my bearings a little; after all, I had just driven all the way from New York.

"You sure you're okay?" Sky asked me and I nodded, undoing my seatbelt and opening my door.

"You know, we can get a hotel room and try this tomorrow," he offered, but I shook my head.

"There's no way that I can wait any longer," I told him as we walked up to the front door and I rang the bell. There was no answer, so I knocked a few times. Perhaps she was asleep.

Sky tried the door and it opened. We stepped in while I was wondering why it would be open, no one ever kept their doors open like that, especially Cloud Spinner's house, where I knew that she had installed several locks and an alarm system. Something was off.

"Hello? Pet?" I called out when we were inside and Sky was already checking my computer to see where the signal was coming from.

"It's upstairs," he said and I immediately began to scale them. At the top, he led the way into a very pink room that had to have been Pet's. I looked around for her, but didn't see her.

"Under here," Sky said, getting down on his stomach and looking under the bed. I waited until something came out from under the bed before I kneeled down.

"Shit," I swore as a stupid rabbit hopped out from under it and it had the tracking cuff that we had put on Pet tied onto this damned rabbit.

"She's gone," Sky said and I bowed my head in defeat.

"Get Cloud Spinner on the phone, we have to decide what to do now," I instructed him and resisted the urge to kick the animal. It wasn't its fault, after all. The world was just against me or something.

**A/N: 7906 : )  
This was actually done yesterday, I just forgot to post it with all the Halloween stuff... sorry.  
I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Halloween this year! **

**Oh, and for those of you who liked Tyler the first time that I put him in the story, I just had to add him a second time in the last chapter before Wanda left there. He was just too cute, I agree!**

**Review : )**


	31. Back To Where It All Began

**A/N: Please read the note at the bottom, it's kind of important, but enjoy the update!! P.S. FF hasn't let me log in since Wednesday.. I've had this done for a few days, but this is the first time I've been able to get in.**

**Extra special thanks to brokenfromthepast, kimmitwilight, 123xyz, hanaharoo, piccolover22, islandofdreams, HOLLYZ, AliceLuvsU, renochick, RawSugarX23, HockeeChica, Rajalker and Allebasi, TK-MR, WhiteCamellia, chloe-hale79 and anoek013. We finally reached 500 reviews and I couldn't have done it without you! I /never/ would have thought that this little Host story could have actually received that many! Thank you so much! I love hearing what you have to say and your reviews are what keep me writing! Thank you! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

It was very hard to sit in complete silence in the back of the van with Jamie while Jared got us out of there. All I wanted was to sing to the heavens and be happy and celebrate the fact that I had gotten out of there alive; and that I had another chance at everything. I needed that. I needed another start to even try and fix things with Ian. I knew that Ian would be mad at me, that was a given, so I wanted to at least try to fix that.

I looked over at Jamie to see that he had his hand clapped over his mouth, but I could still see the grin from under his large hand. He winked at me and I held back a giggle.

"Shh," Mel said to us, not bothering to turn around to look at us. I bit my lip and looked away from Jamie so that I wouldn't end up full out laughing or something and give her an opportunity to actually yell at me.

It was a long while, and I was almost asleep by the time I heard Jared let out the smallest sigh, but since the van was absolutely quiet, the small noise seemed like something major, and bigger than it should have been.

"Wanda!" Mel practically screeched at me, turning around in her seat. I gave her a big grin at the same time that I felt Jamie's arms around me, knocking me down to the floor of the van.

"You're free! How does it feel?" Jamie asked, still squishing me into the floor.

"It feels awesome, but it would be better if I could breathe," I told him and he immediately let up.

"Sorry about that, Wanda," he apologized, but still gave me a big hug.

"That's okay, Jamie," I said, smiling the biggest smile of my life and hugging him back. "And I am so glad to be out of there! It was honestly like living in jail."

"I'm so sorry about that," Mel said, giving me a wistful smile.

"It's fine Mel."

"No it's not," she said, shaking her head. "If we had done something more, anything, then you wouldn't have been there and..."

"Stop it. There was nothing that anyone could have done to stop what happened that day," I told her, cutting her off. "Trust me, I've been over it a hundred times; driven myself crazy and everything, and there's nothing."

"Yeah, but still..."

"Drop it, Mel," Jared told her, but I could see in her face that she didn't want to drop it.

"Just think, now you're back with everyone now! Everything will go back to normal!" Jamie chirped and I smiled at him.

"No it won't," Jared said, kind of darkly from the front seat.

"Why not? We just have to show them all that it was a big misunderstanding and then we'll all be happy again!"

"What about Ian and Kyle?" Jared replied and Jamie fell silent. "You know what he thinks; it will probably take a lot of convincing; you know that, I know that, Mel knows that..."

"Even I know and that's saying something," I said glumly, not looking forwards to Ian's initial reaction to me, so I looked away from Jamie's face. "Maybe you should just take me somewhere and leave me there. I mean, like some sort of hiding place where I'll be safe and away from the outside world to live the rest of my life here and then..."

"Absolutely not," Jared's words cut through the air and I recoiled for an instant. "Wanda, we just came all the way up here to get you out of there, we're not going to go back there and tell them about how we busted you out and then dumped you off somewhere. They would hurt us."

"Why would you want us to do that anyways? I thought you wanted to get out of their world and come back to the caves with us?" Mel turned around to ask, but I couldn't meet her eyes; I knew that she was hurt after my stupid little comment.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I do want to come back, I'm... I'm just afraid of Ian's reaction, that's all. From what you've all told me he doesn't exactly believe that it's still me, so that leads me to believe that he won't be very... receptive or accept me once we get there. I fear, well I fear that he'll shut me out completely and do what Jared did with the gun and everything," I told them, not holding much back in terms of my thoughts on the subject.

"I don't think that he'll do that to you," Jared said, catching my eye in the rearview mirror. "I really don't. He may seem mad or upset to everyone, but I bet that he'll be more glad and relieved that you're back than anything else."

"You'll probably just have to explain it more in detail to him than anyone else though," Mel added and I nodded, scratching my head.

"I still don't want to do it."

"Man up," Mel said to me, turning back around to the road. "I hate to say it this way, but you created this shit; now you've got to clean it up. He'll forgive you; he loves you too much not to. Just give him some time."

"Are you sure?" I asked her.

"No."

I rolled my eyes; she really knew how to make me feel better, that was for sure. Now I was more worried than ever. I was sure that Jamie could sense that, for he tapped my shoulder so that I would look at him before offering me a small smile, which I weakly returned.

"It will all be okay. Trust me," Jamie whispered and I nodded.

"Thank, Jamie."

Since there wasn't much more for me to do in the back of the van, I stretched out and lay back, looking up at the roof. Jared was adamant that he wouldn't let me drive at all; he claimed that he just wanted to deliver me back to the caves in one piece and Jamie had fallen asleep, probably because of all the excitement of the previous days. I tried to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes images of Ian's disappointed and enraged face filled my mind and I ended up opening them up again.

I had no sense of time, but it was dark out when Jared finally pulled the van over. My heart began to race in panic once I realized that we must have been back, but my brain knew that we hadn't spent enough time in the van for it to be time. Unfortunately, my heart wasn't listening to my brain and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

"You're still awake?" Mel asked and I looked up to her, nodding my head.

"Calm down, we're just switching; Jared needs to sleep now and so do you," she demanded while switching over to the driver's seat.

"I could drive if you want, you need sleep too," I offered sitting up, but she shook her head and clipped her seatbelt in place while looking through the glove compartment as Jared hopped into the passenger seat.

"What are you looking for?" he asked while she basically sprawled out over his lap. "I mean, not that I'm complaining, but still."

I bit back a giggle as Mel smacked Jared's leg before closing the box and sitting back up.

"It's Taylor Swift; one of my old mixed CDs with a lot of her slower ones on it," she explained, shoving it into the CD player and waiting for it to respond. "Wanda needs to sleep, and this is a fail proof way to get her to do that."

"Wanda is sitting right here and can here you, you know," I said to her, a little annoyed that she was talking about me like I wasn't a foot away from her.

"I'm ignoring you," she said and I rolled my eyes.

"I know."

"Just lie down and listen to this," she instructed me and since I knew not to go against what Mel said, I lay back and looked up at the roof again. "And close your eyes."

I sighed before obeying as she turned down the music and got back onto the road. True to Mel's word, the low level that she had the music at was making me rather groggy; and it had taken away the vile images of Ian's distorted face when I closed my eyes.

_I'll leave my window open cause I'm too tired tonight to call your name, just know that I'm right here hoping you'll come in with the rain_

After hearing only a few lyrics, I was lost to the realm of sleep.

**Ian POV**

Mel, Jared and Jamie had been gone for a few days and I knew that they would have been due back at any time, but I wasn't really ready for that; I still had a lot to sort out before I got the real answer on 'Wanda's' existence. A part of me didn't want to know. If it really was Pet, then I didn't want this person to be running around here, just reminding me of what I had lost and that there was no way that I could live like that.

It would be like the whole Kyle and Sunny thing again, but I didn't think that I could deal with it in the same way that Kyle did. He was really good about having Sunny come and live with everyone, but I wouldn't be so forgiving, and I knew that.

On the other hand, if they did bring back the real Wanda, then I would need to hear the full story about what happened and why exactly she had done that to us, and that would be just as hard, I feared.

I had spent the time while the others were away between my room and Kyle's, and occasionally the kitchen. No one had told anyone else, and I knew that Kyle wouldn't, despite the fact that he had told me he would; I knew him, and knew that he wanted me to be there when he told everyone; it was his little attempt at getting me to talk about everything. I planned on only stepping in only if absolutely necessary.

I was sitting in my room in the morning after I had gotten breakfast a few hours prior and was just wasting the time until the others got back. I heard a few knocks on my door and looked up to see a hand move the door out of the way and Sunny stuck her head through the gap before stepping in shyly.

"Hi Ian," she said, looking away. I knew that she was better with us, especially after the raid, but I knew that she was still a little shy with me; after all, I was the number one person who inflicted pain upon her Kyle.

"Hey Sunny, what's up?" I asked her, standing from the bed and smoothing my shirt.

"Um, Kyle has everyone waiting for you down in the kitchens. He wants to tell everyone what happened, but is refusing to start without you. I told him that you wouldn't want to come, but..."

"It's fine, I'm coming," I told her, giving her a smile. There was no reason to be mad at her for my brother's stupid decisions; she had no hand in the matter.

I walked over to her and waited for Sunny to step out into the hall before I closed the door. Once we started walking towards the kitchens, she spoke again.

"Ian, they should be back soon, right?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets.

"Well, I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you, should you ever need someone to talk to."

"Thanks Sunny," I smiled down at her but she didn't return it.

"No, I'm serious, Ian. If they come back and it's not Wanda, I don't want you to flip out and hide from the world. I've been on the receiving end of someone who didn't want me right away, and I can tell you that it sucks. I mean, I get what he did, and what Kyle went through, but that doesn't mean that the initial reaction to me didn't hurt. He wanted rid of me right away, you know?"

"I know Sunny, and I thank you, but I think that I'll be all right," I assured her once we were closer to the kitchens.

"I sure hope so, Ian. Something tells me that you wouldn't be able to handle it as well as you think you would," she said thoughtfully before we entered the room.

It was dead silent in there while we walked up to the front where Kyle was perched up on a table so that everyone could see him. Once we got to him, he patted the spot next to him for Sunny to sit, but she shook her head and sat in the booth beside him. He then gave me a pointed glare and looked down at the spot beside him; I had no choice but to sit there.

"All right, now that Ian's decided to grace us with his presence, I suppose we can get started," Kyle called out to the group and I looked down at the floor. "Does anyone have any questions, or should we just start?"

"How about you just tell us," Lily said from near the front, but I didn't look up at her.

Kyle began to tell the story and I kept my head bowed the entire time. There was no way that I could face a crowd like that when Kyle was telling it; my heart was literally ripped into pieces again when he mentioned Wanda's name and I wasn't sure that I could hold it together through the whole thing. I felt a hand on my leg and looked down to see Lily's hand resting on it while she gave me a sympathetic smile that I tried to return.

When Kyle got to the part where Wanda had said those awful words to us, he asked if I wanted to take over, but I gave him a crazy look and shook my head. I closed my eyes again and tried not to lose it in front of everyone, but it was so very hard. Just as he was about to finish off the big long story, there was a commotion from outside the doors to the kitchen, but I ignored it; it was probably just Jeb causing some sort of a stir out there. My heart literally stopped beating in my chest when I heard the two words I had been waiting for,

"They're back," Sunny whispered and Kyle fell silent in the middle of his sentence.

My head snapped up at Sunny's voice and I craned my neck to see over everyone who were standing up out of their seats to see the ones who were standing in the doorway; as a result, I couldn't hardly see anything. The room fell completely silent aside from the moving of bodies around and I felt Kyle's hand clap down on my shoulder and I just nodded.

"Go, Ian" he said quietly to me, but I felt like I was glued in my spot and couldn't move. As soon as I moved from where I was sitting, I would know; it was the moment of truth.

"Ian, move it," he demanded of me, pushing me forwards and I almost pitched off of the table.

I stood up and it was almost like the parting of the Red Seas as everyone moved out of my way when I began to walk towards the doorway. Once I reached it, I was met by Mel and Jared, who both gave me tight smiles, giving away nothing with them. Melanie stepped to me and gave me a hug.

"You okay?" she asked, whispering in my ear. I simply shrugged and she let go.

"She's this way," Jared said, motioning for me to follow them away from the kitchens. "We've put her up in Doc's room for now, but you can choose where you want to talk with her if you want. I know that might be a little weird of a location, but..."

"It's fine," I interrupted him, feeling a little anxious about the girl who was waiting for me in Doc's cave.

"Don't be nervous Ian, everything has a way of working itself out, no matter what the situation is," Mel said from behind me and I frowned.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

She shrugged. "Whatever you want it to mean."

I thought over her little cryptic remarks until Jared stopped in front of me and I just about ran into his back. I looked around for the reason for our abrupt stop and realized that we had made it all the way to Doc's in record time. That was when the butterflies hit.

"I don't know if I can do this," I admitted and looked down at the ground in shame. There was no good reason for me to feel that way, I just did.

"Yes you can," Mel said to me. "You're a strong individual and there is nothing that you can't handle, trust me."

"Yeah, but... I'm just," I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm really nervous about what's waiting for me in there. Is it really Wanda, or is it Pet?"

"I'm not telling you that, you need to figure it out on your own," she replied and I bit back a groan; it would make things so much easier if she had just told me then and there, but it was Melanie and she liked to be difficult.

"Seriously though, you've got nothing to worry about," Jared said, pushing me towards the room. "Just go in there and talk to her. If I can give you one bit of advice, it would be to listen to everything that she has to tell you and don't interrupt her; it might make everything worse. Just hear her out and then have your say."

I nodded and hesitantly took a step forwards before putting my head up and walking the rest of the way. I felt like I was going to throw up. I rounded the corner and stopped in the doorway as I noticed a figure that was sitting on one of the cots move. I saw her blonde hair reflected in the light from the holes above her and when she looked up, I saw directly into her silver eyes. She gave me a small smile before looking away as I stepped more into the room.

"You can come and sit down," the girl offered in the same tone of voice that Wanda had and I briefly wondered if it was indeed her sitting there.

"That's all right," I answered, leaning against the wall by the door. I knew that it was the wrong thing to say as I noticed her face fell almost immediately, but I needed a place with a quick escape; not that I was planning on one, but just in case.

"So... you're back," I started off, since it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything. "Wh... who exactly are you?" I asked and I heard her gasp, but didn't know what to make of it as I refused to meet her eye.

**Wanda POV**

It took us awhile to get back to the caves, but I was on-edge the whole time. Jared decided to just take the van back to the caves and then he'd take it back later, because it was just after the middle of the day and he didn't want us to run across it. I didn't exactly get it, because I thought that it would have been better to run than drive, but I wasn't about to question Jared about it; I just wanted to get there in one piece.

We made it inside and it was kind of awkward for me, because I didn't know where to go. I was sure that Ian wouldn't want me back inside the room that we shared, especially unannounced; it was sure to throw him for a loop and I didn't want to do that to him. After much protesting on Mel's part, since she wanted me to go to her and Jared's room, Jamie suggested that I just go to Doc's and wait there. They decided that Jamie would take me, since it was his idea while the other two would go and track down Ian.

Waiting in Doc's room for Ian was the third hardest thing I'd ever had to do; the first being leaving him in the first place, and the second being telling him what had actually happened that day. I knew that I hadn't gotten to the second thing yet, but it was bound to be hard, especially if he was as guarded as they said he was.

Jamie had wanted to stay with me but I had kicked him out, for there was no real reason for him to wait with me. Minutes later, I was unhappy that I'd sent him away for I could have used someone's hand to hold on to while waiting, but I seriously needed to grow up; and telling Ian so that we could hopefully move past it would be the first act of the new me.

I heard voices and the one set of heavy footsteps coming down the hall towards where I was and I knew right away that they were Ian's. Instantly, my heart began to race, my palms began to sweat, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I started to doubt myself about whether or not I would actually be able to handle telling him what I needed to without losing it; I had waited so long for that moment and had practised what I was going to say, but it all seemed to fly out the holes in the ceiling once he actually stepped into the room.

My memory of him certainly hadn't done me justice. When I chanced a glance up at him, my heart skipped a few beats and all the memories of all our time together came flooding back to me all at once. It was too overwhelming, so I had to look away before I broke down right then and there before I had even started to say what I had to. I needed to at least get through some of it before that point. For the first time in my short life on the planet, I was completely tongue tied and didn't know what to say to break the silence between us; it wasn't awkward like it should have been, just a little stiff.

I offered for him to sit down, but he declined, opting to lean against the wall by the door; it looked like he just needed an escape if absolutely necessary. I couldn't help but to let the disappointment show on my face at the fact that he would clearly run away rather than sit and listen to what I had to say. After he declined that, I had lost all of my confidence in telling him the story; Ian seemed to sense that and spoke first,

"So, you're back. Who exactly are you?" he asked and my heart tightened. I took a deep breath, but let my head fall down so that I was looking at the floor and not his face before I finally answered him.

"It's me, Ian. I never left you; I couldn't. I can't," I corrected myself, trying to keep my voice in check, but it was becoming harder and harder.

"Wanda then, is that what you're going by?" he just about snarled at me and it took all I had in me not to cry out at his harshness. I had expected as much, and I knew that I deserved it, but hearing it instead of wondering and dreaming, was totally different.

"I never left, Pet never came back, and you were there when we shipped her off. You are the one who put me back into this body and I've been with you ever since then."

"How can I believe it? How do you expect me to believe you when you said that to me? For all I know you could be Pet or some other _soul_ just trying to mess with me? Huh? How do I know that?" Ian asked, his voice becoming louder and louder as he got angrier.

I decided to look up at him then and get it over with; I couldn't keep talking to him if I didn't know how he looked. I could see Ian's posture was very tense as he leaned against the wall, slightly angling himself away from me. He had his arms crossed and I saw that his jaw was set; a sure sign that he was angry with me.

"Well, for one thing, there can't be two souls in the same body at one time," I started off quietly, trying to look Ian straight in the eye, but he wouldn't look at me. "It's impossible, especially for a human body because there are only so many connection points; one of them would die. And I remember all of the things that have happened like they were yesterday, Ian. If I was another soul, I wouldn't be able to do that."

"You could be lying."

I wasn't going to lie, his words stung me worse than I thought that they would, but I refused to let him see how much he hurt me; not that he probably cared, since he seemed convinced that I was someone else.

"But I'm not. I can tell you exactly what I did to get those things out of Healer Peace's office; what went on, even some of what I said to her. I could explain to you exactly what happened after that; the little disagreement that we had and then when you gave me that letter and the poem and..."

He didn't say anything, but I stopped talking because Ian had promptly left the room. I supposed that the last comment about his letter and poem sent him right over the edge and he just couldn't take it anymore. I was a little mad at him for it though; he was so closed-minded sometimes that if he thought one thing he wasn't likely to change his mind very quickly, that was one of those times. It killed me to know that he truly did believe that Pet was in the body instead of me, and that he wasn't even really trying to see past that.

I heard footsteps coming back down in my direction and I looked up, a little hopeful and optimistic that Ian was coming back to listen. Much to my disappointment, though I did love her very much, it was just Melanie.

"What happened with him?"

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "Where were you to see him?"

"Well, Jared and I were kind of standing out at the mouth of the tunnel; far enough away that we couldn't hear you, but Ian definitely blew past us and he didn't look happy," she explained almost apologetically.

"Yeah, well. He doesn't believe that I'm here; he thinks I'm Pet and he stormed out of here," I explained and shrugged.

"What did you say to him? Was there something that could have triggered his flight?" I rolled my eyes at her before retelling what I had told him, not that there was very much of it to tell.

"That's just stupid though, he had no reason to run out of here!" Mel exclaimed, but I stayed silent.

"Sure there was; I obviously hit a nerve while talking about the letter and stuff. I mean, that was personal stuff that he shared and since he thinks that I'm Pet he would obviously get mad about her knowing that," I said, trying to defend him though I knew that it was helpless against her.

"Still. If I were you, I wouldn't take that shit from him. What you two desperately need to do is sit down and just talk; without him running away from you. What a coward."

"He is not," I said, frowning at her.

"How can you defend him when he's hurting you?" she practically cried and I leapt up from where I was sitting.

"I don't know, okay? I just know that I still love him, and that should be enough for me to defend him. Ian obviously just needs a little time is all..."

"No," Jared's voice interrupted me and I jumped, not expecting it to be so loud in that room. "That's exactly what he doesn't need, the time. The longer he stews over that, the longer it will take for him to come around. The best thing for you to do is chase him down and make him listen."

"But I can't," I said defeated. "I can't chase him down like that."

"You can if you love him like you say you do," he said, hitting me below the belt but I didn't care by that point.

"But Jared..."

"Wanda."

I stared him down for a few minutes before reluctantly giving in and looking away.

"Even if I do go after him, there's no telling that he'll stay. I don't even know where he is right now, and he'll probably bolt or something," I protested, but only half-heartedly. Jared was right after all.

"Ian's in your room, and he will stay if you block the door and _make_ him listen. I don't know how to make that clearer, Wanda. I know that you want this, so just go after it what you want. Don't sit here and mope because you let him get away; that won't do any good for either of you."

"I... I don't know if I can," I admitted. "I'm not like that, everyone knows that."

"If you love him and want him back, you'll do it," Jared said simply, walking closer to me and putting his hands on my shoulders. "Look, I know that you're scared, but trust me when I say that this it's the right thing to do. Sometimes you need to put yourself out there and take a chance; and I know that you, Wanda are capable of doing that. You've done so much in the past that talking to Ian would seem almost small compared to some of the other things."

"Wanda, you can really do it. You've got spunk and fire and you just need to light your ass or something and burst in there," Mel said from behind Jared and I nodded.

"Fine."

"Woo, you go Wanda! Show Ian who's boss and that you're not taking his shit about anything any more!" she cheered and I giggled. Jared gave me a smile before pulling me in for a quick hug and letting me go again.

"Go," he said, pushing me towards the door and before I could have changed my mind I took off running.

I really hoped that Ian was still in his room like Jared had said and that he hadn't gone anywhere else. It crossed my mind exactly how Jared knew of his exact location, but it didn't matter. Time seemed to have flown for I found myself standing outside of the red door all too soon for my liking. I stood there awkwardly for a minute, debating whether or not I should knock, but I figured that I should just barge on in there; it wasn't like formalities really mattered anymore.

I shoved the door open with all of my might and went inside, not looking around while I put it back.

"Go away," Ian's voice said from behind me, but I ignored it, shaking my head.

"I'm serious, I don't want to talk to you," he said again and I heard movement from him. I took a deep breath before turning around.

"Look, you don't have to say anything, but you have to sit and listen to me," I started off, looking Ian right in the eye as he stood before me. "I'm serious. I don't care if you still hate me or don't believe me, but I need for you to hear me out before you make that final decision."

Ian just crossed his arms and looked at me, so I took that as the opportunity to begin. I figured that as long as I kept the door locked then he wouldn't go anywhere.

"Where should I start?" I mumbled to myself, running a hand through my hair while trying to decide.

"How about with who exactly you really are. You said that there can't be two souls in the same body, but how can I believe that? I heard you clearly tell me that Wanda was gone and now you're trying to get me to change my mind on that?"

"Well, it's true; there can't be two of us in the same body. And right now, it's just Wanda in here like it always has been. And. I know that I said some horrible things to you that day, but you have to trust me when I say that I _had_ to do it, Ian; I had to."

"I don't get that. We could have all gotten out of there. Instead, you hurt me. I don't know whether you realize that or not, but I can't exactly get over that." He started to pace around the small space around him as I watched. "God, on that day, my whole life came crashing down as you revealed who you truly are. What I don't get is why. Why would you bring us all down like that?"

"I lied it to save you," I said to him, my voice cracking as I finally started to lose it and I saw Ian shake his head at me. "Yes, yes I did. If I hadn't lied to you like that, then they would have done something worse; they could have taken you or Mel or someone else, and that wasn't okay with me. If I hadn't done it and just tried to get you all to leave, it wouldn't have worked. I'm sorry for the implications of my words but I had to, Ian!"

"There was no reason for you to drop that bomb right then and there though!" Ian snarled and I closed my eyes, as the first few tears streamed down my face. "Why did you lead me on for so long thinking that I was with Wanda? If you had let me known sooner, it would have been a whole hell of a lot more convenient than just letting me believe the lie."

"That's not it at all," I said, determined not to yell no matter how heated he got. "Right now you are believing the wrong thing, Ian and I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I'm Wanda, and Pet has never been in this body since I was inserted into it."

"You still could have let someone else take the fall, why were you clearly so eager to get away from us and back to the other souls?"

"How could you say that?" I asked, my eyes flying open and I glared at him. "How _dare_ you say that I would rather be out there than in here with all of you. Ian, you have no idea what I went through just to get back here to you. The only reason that I gave myself up like that was because they were clearly looking for me. In fact, I _know_ that they were looking for me."

"How, how do you know that?"

"Well, I did spend a considerable amount of time with them, when all was said and done, you know; and there wasn't a whole lot that I could have done about that. I can tell you though, that whenever I had a spare minute to think, I was trying to come up with ways to get away from that place," I told him coolly. "It wasn't until Mel, Jared and Jamie came that I regained some semblance of hope."

"I still... I... I just want my Wanda back," he finally relented after somewhat hearing what I had to say.

"She's right here, standing in front of you and if you can't see that then there's clearly something wrong with you," I told him, probably a little harshly, but I didn't care all that much.

"I'll tell you what I see," Ian said to me, coming over to stand at his full height directly in front of me. "I see Pet's body in front of me, the one that used to belong to Wanda. I can't tell who exactly is inside of it because there is no way for me to tell. Even if we were to take you out, there aren't any distinguishing characteristics that would tell you apart from anyone else."

"You just have to trust me," I whispered to him, looking up to catch a glimpse of his angered face.

"I don't think I can."

It wasn't the smartest thing for me to have done, since I was still upset with Ian for doing it, but I turned and ran from the room, not bothering to put the door back that I knocked aside. I was practically blind as I ran through the maze of caves with tears pouring down my face as I choked back the sobs. I stumbled on something, almost falling to the ground before picking myself up and continuing on, not really sure where I was headed, since I didn't have a place to be anymore.

I wiped the tears from my face angrily; I didn't want to run out of there or lose it like that, I wanted to have a normal conversation with Ian to try and hash things out but clearly that wasn't about to happen anytime soon. I looked around to see where I was and noticed that I was back by the old storage room where they had kept Mel and I when we first arrived. I walked down to it and noticed that it was only about a quarter full; I knew that they had been working on finding new areas to store things so that it wasn't always so crowded in there and I was very thankful for that.

I crept over to the wall near the hole where Jared had kept us and sat down on the floor, bringing my knees up and wrapping my arms around them. That was the place where it had all started, so it was only fitting that I would feel at least a little comfortable being there when there was nowhere else for me.

**Ian POV**

When that girl left my room, I felt a little bad for making her cry, but I was still a little relieved. She kept bombarding me with information and it was just making me angrier than anything else; I couldn't believe anything that she told me just in case that it was all lies. I wasn't looking to get hurt by her again. Once I had sat down on the bed again, I began to really think about what she had told me; about only one soul being in a body and the reason behind telling me the truth right when the alarm went off and everything. It did make a bit of sense, but not much, I decided.

"What the hell is your problem?" Kyle's voiced echoed around the room and I internally groaned; he was the second to last person I wanted to see right then; the girl being the last.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told him, even though I knew he wouldn't like that answer and would probably stick around longer.

"Bullshit. What the hell? Why is Wanda running out of here in tears?"

"So she 'explained' everything to you too? You believe her?" I asked, pulling myself up to my full height again and looking at him.

"Are you kidding me? This is interesting, our roles are completely reversed now," he pointed out and I shrugged. "And no, she didn't talk to me at all; Jamie came and told Sunny and I everything that she had told them when they went to get her."

"So all that stuff about leaving that day then?" I asked, still glaring at him.

"Back off," he told me, pushing my shoulders away from him, making me take a step back.

"Yes, he told us all about what she said about the hospital, and you know what? There was nothing more she could have done. She did what she had to and if Wanda hadn't made us all leave, it would have been much worse for _all_ of us," he told me and I frowned.

"She must have brainwash—"

"Shut up!" Kyle yelled at me and I bit my cheek; I wasn't looking to get hit today again. "She did not! Apparently there was a tracking device on the bottom of the van, probably put on by the souls that took Wanda away from us there. Jared noticed it and got rid of it; you can ask him if you don't believe me."

"That's not even possible. Nobody told me about any of this."

"That's because you've basically been a hermit since we got back here Ian! And now that you've finally gotten your Wanda back you're being too stupid to see it!"

"She's not back," I told him, and didn't fail to notice the obvious clenching of his fists by his sides.

"You truly are an idiot aren't you?" he asked, but I felt that it didn't need an answer. "Man, at least when I brought Sunny back I had a reason to be a little upset about the whole situation; I really and truly lost Jodi, I'll admit it. But you... you've got your girl back, and you've chased her away again simply because you refuse to listen."

"I refuse to listen to the lies," I said simply and stepped back with the breath knocked out of me as Kyle's fist connected with my stomach.

"Just be thankful that it wasn't your face this time," he said, maliciously while I tried to get my breathing back under control. "But seriously, Ian, really. Get your friggen act together and fix this now before it's too late."

"I can't Kyle," I wheezed, holding onto my stomach. "How can you expect me to even sit there and listen to what she has to say without being reminded of that day? That's what happens, I just get thinking and I refuse to let her hurt me again."

"Did you ever think of what it did to her?"

"You're just assuming that it's Wanda out there."

"I am convinced that it is, Ian. I haven't talked to her, but from what I've heard, it has to be. No one else would have come back to you like that, you know," he said and I looked away. "Do you really think that Pet or any other soul would have busted their butts to get back here to us; to you? I highly doubt it."

"They might," I argued back feebly.

"No; the only reason they would have come back would be to lead a whole pack of Seekers to us. And you can bet that Jamie, Mel and especially Jared would have made sure that they weren't followed; you know how paranoid Jared is about being followed."

"How do you know though? I don't get why you're all so sure that it's Wanda," I was starting to crack, and I wasn't sure that I liked that.

"You just have to trust her," Kyle answered simply, giving me a sympathetic look. "I know that it's hard to do, but Wanda won't trick you; well, more than she already has. I bet all that she wants you to do is listen; and at least give her your undivided attention and not interrupt or say something dumb. Can you do that?"

I sucked in a deep breath and nodded my head. I knew that after hurting her like that I owed her that much, even if I had to swallow my pride and go along with it. I didn't want her to be sad, whoever she really was.

"So you'll go? You'll do it?" Kyle asked, and I looked up at him.

"Yeah."

"Good, go," he pushed me in the direction of the door and I winced at the fast movement as it made me clench my stomach muscles and that hurt.

"Fine, Kyle, whatever, I said while walking over towards the door. "But if this doesn't work out, I'm coming after you."

"Sure, sure mister tough guy," he called out to me, but I was already headed down the hall.

I got all the way out to the main cavern before I ran into anyone. I saw Mel across the room and tried to avert my eyes so that she wouldn't notice, but of course it didn't work; it was Mel after all.

"Hey! O'Shea!" she called out, quickly making her way over to me and the room fell completely silent. I couldn't do anything but stop and wait for her, or she'd be sure to track me down and make me suffer; and that wasn't something I was exactly excited for.

"You hollered?" I asked as soon as she was within earshot.

"Yeah, I did. Why on earth did you run out on Wanda?"

"Look, I don't have time to explain much right now Mel. Now where is she?" I asked, looking over her head and around the room just in case she was around.

"What? What do you mean? She was just with you, wasn't she? You should know--- ohhh, I'm going to kill you," she glared at me and I was truly scared of her for a second.

"It's not like that, really. She tried to explain; I ran, she tried again and I scared her off. I'm hurting what do you expect?" I said, holding my hands up in front of me to stop Melanie before she hit me or started screaming. "I'm trying to find her, isn't that enough?"

"No," she said simply and I sighed. "So you were hurting, big deal. Did you ever think of how much she is hurting?"

"Just, go to Jared or someone. Kyle knows too," I ignored her, shouting over my shoulder, having already turned and started walking off so that she couldn't do anything.

"I swear to you Ian if you hurt her again you're a dead man!" she screamed out to me and I tried to ignore it and keep on walking.

"What about what she did to me?" I asked under my breath as I kept my eyes peeled for the blonde hair I was looking for. "Does that not matter? Nobody seems to care that I've been dying since we got back; they're all just concerned that I've hurt whoever this is. Now where is she."

I ran up to the kitchens and looked around, but she wasn't there; and she wasn't in any of the areas around there either. I was on my way down to the games room and decided to take the long way when I heard some small whimpering and I stopped to listen. Once I decided that it was human sounding and not some sort of lost animal, I followed the sound all the way around the twisting turns until I got to the all-too familiar opening.

I stopped at the entrance to the storage room where we had first 'stored' Mel and Wanda and I heard the sound coming from within it. In internally cursed that the girl would come back to here, and somewhere in my mind I thought that if it was Pet in there she wouldn't have known how to get there, nor would she have known the significance of the place.

I walked down the tunnel and found myself back in the same cave that I hadn't been down in a very long time. I hoped not to ever have to go back down there, but clearly I had to. I looked around while my eyes adjusted to the darkness and saw a shape huddled up against the wall near the hole in it. I stepped forward a little bit and stopped before I got too close and scared her off; I just wanted to do this and get it over with to benefit both of us.

"Hey," I said into the silence, hoping that she would at least respond so that we could get the ball rolling.

"Hi," she replied in a small voice that I could tell was clouded over with emotions.

"I'm here to listen, and I'm not going to run, I promise," I told her and kneeled down on the floor before sitting.

"Thank you," she responded and then it was quiet for awhile. "What.... what do you want to know?"

I thought about it for a second before responding.

"Were there really people following us?"

"Yes."

"Why?" I asked her, truly curious to see what the honest answer was.

"Well, remember when we stopped at the Seeker stations and the last one had that guy who was being all nice to me until he noticed you and I told him you were my boyfriend?" I nodded stupidly, for I didn't think that she could see, but she continued nonetheless.

"Apparently before that, Pet's mother had basically put out this wanted ad for her and the guy was pissed off at seeing you so he reported having seen me. Then Red Fires and Sky I guess tracked us down somehow...."

"Who?" I interrupted.

"The people who took me away," she answered quietly. "Anyways, the first time I came into contact with them was when I went into Healer Peace's office; you know to get the...stuff. I didn't realize it then, but they held the door open for me and everything. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"I asked, knowing that her body was blushing at the mention of the Healer's office.

"If only I had suspected something then, everything could have been avoided." I stayed silent, wanting to comfort her but since I was still unsure of who it was sitting there.

"Anyways, I guess then they placed the tracking device on the van and followed us all the way to the hospital; and then you obviously know what happened after that."

"Yeah, I guess I do know," I responded and nodded. "So what did they do to you after you went with those guys?"

I sat there for a long while as she told me absolutely every little thing that happened from the moment she was taken from us to when Mel, Jared and Jamie showed up to bring her back down here. My backside was getting sore, but I had to hear everything that she told me, as I promised her that I would listen, and I was going to.

"So, yeah. Then we came back here.... that's about everything," she finished and grew quiet again.

"I'm sorry that it all happened to you," I told her, truly feeling sorry that this girl had been through so much.

"Don't be. I deserved it." I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off. "Don't try to tell me otherwise, because that's what I believe and nothing can really change that; it's the same thing that you're doing to me right now. You don't believe that I'm really Wanda sitting here, so it's all good."

I bit my lip, knowing that she was right, but there was nothing that I could do or say to contradict her because I hadn't changed my mind even after hearing all of what she said.

"I'm done now, you're free to go," she said, and I could hear her moving around on the floor.

"Thank you for telling me," I offered, standing up and stretching out my cramped legs. "Where are you going to stay?" I asked as an afterthought.

"Here. It's where I belong," she answered.

"I'm sure that we could find you somewhere else to stay..."

"It's fine, just go," I heard her small voice say and I knew that she was on the verge of tears again.

I turned and walked away from her, my heart feeling heavy in my chest. She had told me a lot, and I needed to digest it while staying away from Mel, Kyle and anyone else who was likely to beat on me for before; really, it was a huge misunderstanding. It was just a case of self-preservation; I had already been hurt by the person in that body before and I really didn't a repeat. I knew that she wasn't lying about those events that had happened, and I wanted to believe that it was indeed Wanda in there, but I knew that it would take a little time; not forever, but at least a few days.

**8929 words :) **

**So I know that this one took a little longer, and I believe that I've come up with the real reason why... the other night I had sort of an epiphany. I have been working on this story for over a year now, and I'm itching to move on to other projects as well, drabbling here and there, I just don't want to let this one slide and not get finished. I'm just in some sort of a weird funk : P  
Not exactly sure if there will be a sequel to this... we'll have to see where it ends up/ if anyone would actually want to read a sequel.**

**Don't worry! There's still a fair amount of story left to this one though!  
Review : )**


	32. Moving On

**Yay for an update :)**

**Thanks to brokenfromthepast, AzraCullen, hanaharoo, sharshar85, anoek013, WhiteCamellia, RawSugarX23, jazi12amaze, iamnicolecullen, AliceLuvsU, HockeeChica, PrincessSxySwan, TK-MR, piccolover22, winky23, , kimmitwilight, PoisonedScarlet09 and islandofdreams for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

After Ian had left, I leaned towards my right side until my body touched the ground. I lay there in the darkness curled up in a ball on the dirty ground, for I hadn't brought a lantern with me; I hadn't even thought of it in my haste to get away from Ian. The pain of his rejection ran through me again and I tried to hold my chest together to stop it, but that didn't seem to help any. It hurt me worse than I thought that it would have.

I couldn't the over the fact that no matter what I had told him, he wasn't even willing to try to believe that it was really me. In a way, I supposed that I couldn't have asked for much more, but that didn't seem to make it hurt any less.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall in my direction, so I closed my eyes, hoping that I could make whoever it was believe that I was really sleeping. Even with my eyes shut though, it couldn't take away any of my pain or the urge to cry. I suppressed those feelings though, so that I wouldn't give myself away to whoever was coming.

The person coughed and cleared their throat and I hoped that it wasn't Kyle coming to yell at me or something; I didn't think that I could handle that on top of everything else. I heard movements as the person settled down and I felt a soft thing land on top of me.

"Thought you'd want that," Jeb said and I cracked my eye open a little bit to see him sitting on the ground leaned up again the wall across from me.

"I know that it wasn't pleasant for you down here before, so I brought you a sleeping bag an' one of my pillows fer the night," Jeb explained and I smiled to myself, he seemed to believe me as well, which was a plus.

"But since you're already asleep, I may just take it back for myself."

"No," I said quickly while sitting up. "I wasn't sleeping."

"I knew that," he answered simply. "That's why I was talking to you after all," I nodded while focussing on the little light that was coming from the small lantern that he had brought with him.

"How did you know that I was down here?" I asked.

He shrugged before answering. "I didn't. I just guessed. Plus, seeing Ian walk away from the tunnel was a bit of a clue."

I nodded and toyed with the frayed hem of the sleeping bag.

"You hungry?" he asked and I shook my head.

"You can't starve yourself though," he remarked and I simply nodded.

"I know, but I'm just not hungry right now," I told Jeb. "Plus, I'm not exactly sure how well I'll be recepted out there given Ian's reaction and everything."

"Ah, well I wouldn't worry about them," Jeb commented as he lay down on his sleeping bag and looked up at the ceiling.

He looked so pensive lying there that I almost felt like I was interrupting a private moment or something.

"You okay in there Wanda?" he asked, looking over at me.

"I'm fine."

"No you're not," he replied and I hung my head. "I know you must be hurtin', but you'll just have to give 'im time is all. I mean, he came around the first time."

"I know," I said quietly, looking at my fingers. "I'm just afraid that he won't. I don't know what I'd do then."

"He will. Have faith."

It was silent again before I spoke.

"Can I ask you a question Jeb?"

"You just did," he replied cheekily and I smiled.

"Another one?" I saw his mouth open to speak and I realized what I had said. "That one didn't count."

Jeb chuckled to himself before nodding for me to continue.

"How come you seem to believe me when you haven't even heard what I have to say?"

He didn't even hesitate or bat an eye before answering me.

"Because I didn't need to hear what you had to say; you made it back here when I know that no other soul would willingly do that. Plus, you have to know that if I'd thought for a second that you were someone else we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, for obvious reasons."

I knew that he was talking about shooting Pet or anyone else, but surprisingly it didn't bother me to know that he would do that; in fact I was glad that he would to save everyone else.

"Thank you."

"Dunno what you're thanking me for, but you're welcome."

"For accepting me back into your home," I clarified and he sat up.

"Aw hell, Wanda. This is your home as much as it is anyone's. You're such a hard worker that you're more than earned your spot here. You brought Mel back to us; that's enough to worm your way into all of our hearts. Heck, I let Kyle stay here and he barely does anything."

I giggled at that.

"Now, it's been a long day for both of us and the sun's already gone down. I need my shut-eye if you don't mind," Jeb announced while crawling into his sleeping bag and I followed suit.

"Night Wanda."

"Good night Jeb," I answered as he clicked off the light.

"Wanda?"

"Hm?"

"Welcome back."

"Thanks Jeb," I replied, curling up on my side with a smile on my face.

I had a very fitful sleep as my mind was filled with images of Ian's angered and disappointed face. As a result, I tossed and turned like a fish for a few hours. It didn't seem to bother Jeb in the least though as he just snored right through everything.

The cave was so dark that I couldn't make out anything around me until a hand touched my shoulder and I almost jumped out of my skin in fright.

"Sh, hey it's just me," a voice whispered and I was relieved to have recognized it as Sunny's.

"Come with me, let's take a walk," she suggested, taking my hand in hers so that I had no choice but to follow her.

"How did you know you were touching me?" I whispered once we were away from Jeb.

"I shone a light down the hall before I came down, you must have missed it though," she responded and I nodded while shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess I did miss it."

"C'mon, let's go get some hot chocolate, I could use some," Sunny said and we set off to the kitchen.

When we got there, I noticed that there was some movement coming from the back. I looked over at Sunny who just shrugged almost apologetically but continued to walk back there so I figured that it couldn't have been someone bad; she seemed to know who it was. I rounded the corner and found Mel bustling around with 3 mugs sitting on the counter and a pot boiling on the stove.

"Oh good, you're here," she said to us while looking through a box. "I can't find the packets of hot chocolate."

"We didn't get packets," Sunny replied, moving over to another box and opening it up. "We got tins of it; I remember I went to get it."

Sunny brought the tin of hot chocolate over to the counter where the mugs were and began opening it up. Mel just shrugged and went back to the boiling water and stirred it.

"Can I help you with something?" I offered but they both shook their heads so I hopped up onto the little counter by the door and waited for them to finish.

"I can't believe that you were sleeping down there, Wanda. You could have come to my cave and slept with us or something," Mel scolded me but I glared at her.

"Yeah, that sounds like a real picnic sleeping with you and Jared."

"But you would have at least been off of the floor. Seriously, Wanda there are better places than down there, you know," she rebutted and I shrugged.

"Who was that down there with you?" Sunny asked and Mel whipped around from the stove with her spoon in hand.

"There was someone with you?" she practically cried but Sunny and I quickly shushed her.

"Yes there was someone there..."

"Ian?!" Mel said, her eyes bugging out, but I shook my head.

"Damn," she replied, turning back around.

"It was Jeb," I told them, sliding my hands under my legs. "He came down and gave me a sleeping bag and pillow and told me that he'd stay the night with me. He's not very good company though, since he fell asleep like twenty minutes after he got there."

"Sounds like Jeb," Mel commented and Sunny nodded, though I knew that she really didn't know him all that well; she just liked him because he let her stay with Kyle.

I watched silently as they poured the water into the mugs and Sunny stirred them as Melanie searched through the box that had the tins of hot chocolate in them again. She emerged a few seconds later with a bag of multi-coloured marshmallows.

"Grab a mug and let's go sit out there," she announced, taking a mug and leading the way out to a table. Sunny picked up the other two and handed one to me; I smiled in thanks and she nodded.

I laughed to myself as we saw Mel sitting at a table with the bag ripped open in front of her. As we got closer, she threw one at me and I barely caught it, popping it into my mouth.

"I've never eaten coloured marshmallows before; I can't imagine that they're good for you," I commented, sitting across from Mel in the booth.

"They're not," she replied with a mouthful of them.

"Ew, chew," Sunny told her and she just kept her mouth open longer before swallowing.

"No marshmallows are really good for you, but at least the Tutti Frutti ones have different flavours."

"Bet they taste awesome all mashed up inside your mouth," I said and Sunny laughed while Mel glared and shoved some more in her mouth.

"Just try some," she instructed and I took a handful, trying each of the flavours individually.

"I like the green ones," I said and she shook her head.

"Pink is the way to go."

"Yellow is best," Sunny said, putting some into her drink so they were floating on top, but I didn't feel that adventurous and wasn't exactly sure of the taste of the both of them together.

We chatted about random things for a little while over our mugs but after awhile I began to feel a little sleepy again and tried to hide a yawn behind my hand, but they noticed.

"Before you go back to bed, I have a question for you," Mel said and I nodded, forcing my eyes open again.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Nothing," I shrugged. "There's nothing I can do. It's up to him and I'm done crying over this, it's stupid to do and nothing happens because of it."

I surprised myself with that answer, even though it was the complete truth; there really was nothing I could have done; the rest was up to Ian to figure out.

"So you're going to live down in the storage room forever then?" Sunny asked and I shook my head.

"Hopefully it won't be for forever," I said, cupping my mug with both of my hands and looking into it at the cold dregs that were my drink. "But no, I'll have to move out of there, perhaps into Doc's hospital or something."

"Why not back with Ian?" Me asked and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Right. He doesn't believe me, Mel I can't move back in with him!"

"I know that, but eventually."

"We'd have to discuss it, I suppose. But it's not like it's going to happen any time soon anyways, so why would I think about it and get my hopes up?"

No one had an answer to that.

"Exactly. So I'm just going to let him figure it out while I work and do whatever and find a new place to live for the time being."

"You're going to work?" Sunny looked shocked when I said that and I nodded.

"Yeah, what else am I going to do? I'm not going to hide out somewhere," I said.

"Why not, that's what Ian's been doing since we got back," Mel mumbled and I looked to her.

"Excuse me?" I said, hoping that I'd heard her wrong.

"You heard me. He has only come out like a few times max; he just hid out in your room the whole time."

"It's true," Sunny added. "Other than the day that you guys came back he'd only been out in the dead of night and like 2 times other than that. Kyle told me."

"Well, I'm not going to be like that," I told them. "I don't want to hide away from everyone; I've done enough of that to last me for a good, long while. I just want to be Wanda now that I don't have to pretend anymore, if that makes any sense."

"It makes total sense," Sunny said, placing her hand on my arm.

"I mean, I realize that I'm going to have to be me without Ian by my side, and I've never really done that before, but it's something that I have to do; I need to," I finished, looking at a crack in the table.

"We get it," Sunny told me, wrapping her arm around me for a hug, which I returned. "And I think that's awfully brave of you to think and want to act like that. I know that I would never have the guts to do something like that."

"Thanks, Sunny."

I looked over at Melanie as she seemed awfully quiet, but I passed it off as something else when Sunny collected our mugs and took them back to be washed. I stood up while she was gone and stretched out my legs, wanting to get back into bed as soon as I could.

"Wanda?" I heard Mel say to me as she enveloped me in a hug that I didn't see coming. "Everything will be just fine, I know that it will. And, I'm sorry that you have to go through this, but I'm proud of the fact that you're not going to let this stop you from doing what you want to."

"Thanks, Mel," I hugged her back and she left an arm around my shoulder as Sunny came back and we all started walking out of the kitchen.

They walked me all the way back to the entrance to the storage cave and I could see Mel wanting to protest about it, but she kept her mouth shut. I hugged them one last time before walking down the dark tunnel and feeling my way back to the sleeping bag that I had vacated hour before. As I settled down, I thought about the next day and how I was going to be fearless and go about the normal things that I did before we left the caves. I knew that it would be hard and that I would probably have to put on a brave face, but I wasn't willing to let this situation get to me anymore.

I vowed to not shed another tear over everything; at least until Ian made his decision.

**Ian POV**

I woke up the next morning with a very heavy heart. I lay in bed mulling over everything that had happened during the previous day and all that the girl had told me. There was nothing in the world that I wanted more than anything than to have my Wanda back and after hearing the story, I desperately wanted to believe that it really was Wanda here, but a part of me was still reeling from what she had done in the first place so that it was hard for me to accept it. I wasn't exactly sure how the others were so forgiving, but I chalked it up to the fact that they didn't love her as intimately as I did.

It sort of felt like the calm after the storm, I decided, rolling onto my stomach and looking at the nearly empty shelves that previously housed most of Wanda's things. As I thought about it, I realized that the majority of the things that she had told me she'd done while at Pet's house were liable, and probably things that I would have done, were I in her place.

"_Still_," I thought as I pushed back the covers, stood up and stretched. "_It didn't change the fact that she really hurt me, and it didn't change what happened that day."_

I quickly changed and decided to brave going down to breakfast with everyone; I knew that I couldn't hide out in my room forever, so it was time to turn over a new leaf of sorts. I passed Paige, Lily and Trudy on my way to the kitchen and nodded at them, to which they seemed shocked that I actually acknowledged them.

When I walked into the kitchen it was pretty full and I noticed that a sort of hushed silence fell over everyone in there. I ignored it and made my way to get a plate of food and then turned around, looking for a place to eat. Between the stares and full spots, it felt similar to being a freshman on the first day of school; not sure where to sit and who to be with and scared as hell.

I finally spotted Kyle sitting with Sunny and Jared and he motioned for me to sit with them; similar to what he did on that first day of freshman year. The only reason he did that then was because Mom had paid him to watch out for me that first week of school because she was anxious and worried about me. Now, he must have only done it because Sunny told him to or something. Nevertheless, I walked over there and sat beside Jared and the room started to buzz with conversation once again.

"So you decided to grace us with your presence then?" Jared asked and I rolled me eyes, nodding as I dug into my food.

"So what are you going to do today?" Sunny asked .

"I dunno, work I guess."

"You're not going to hide out like a coward?" Kyle remarked, faking shock and it took all I had to not kick him under the table.

"No, I'm not."

"That's good," Sunny answered, nodding and smiling to herself like it was some sort of a private joke.

"Hey guys!" Mel's voice sounded from over my right shoulder and she pushed on my head, making me duck as she stepped over me and plopped herself down in between Jared and I.

"How are you, Ian?"

"I'm fine thanks Mel, how are you?" I answered her politely while shovelling more food in my mouth so I didn't have to answer any more questions from her.

"I don't believe you, but I'm doing just fine now that Wanda's back with us!" she chirped and I bit my lip in surprise at her forwardness.

"Mel," Jared chastised her and she shrugged.

"What? It's true, you know that."

"Yes, well. Still Mel."

"Oh, enough Jared," she waved a hand at him and turned to me.

"So what do you think of the whole Wanda situation thing? Do you believe her yet?" I glared at Mel while Jared clapped a hand over her mouth and pulled her back into his chest.

"Enough Mel," he growled at her and she rolled her eyes.

"All right, let's go," Kyle announced. "We're all on field duty today, so we'd better get going before Jeb eats us or something."

"Or shoots you," Jared corrected him and we all laughed. It felt good to laugh, even if it was a tiny bit forced on my behalf.

I stood and collected all of their dishes, taking them back to the back and placing them in a crate to be washed.

"Thanks Ian," Lucinda called out to me from over by the stove.

"No problem," I answered and she smiled. I was grateful for people like her who were willing to forgive and forget about things that had happened and move on for the greater good. Granted, she was a bit hesitant towards Wanda in the beginning, but I could appreciate that, especially since she really came around after Mel came back and... well.

As I walked back towards my brother and everyone I saw that they were waiting for me. Kyle had his arm wrapped around Sunny's waist and she was leaning onto his shoulder and I watched as he leaned down and kissed her head quickly. Melanie was jumping up and down in front of Jared and while she was mid-air in a jump he caught her and pulled her to him, touching their noses together. Seeing the four of them all happy and clearly in love with each other; no matter what Kyle thought, he really was in love with Sunny, created a pang of jealousy that shot through me.

They both had their happily ever afters; Jared more than Kyle, in the situation that we were in and I didn't, and it bothered me. I knew that it was my own fault that I didn't have anyone at the moment, but I just wasn't healed enough or ready to allow her back in; even though I should have been. I really hoped that having her around the caves again would help me to make up my mind faster, but I wasn't sure how well I was going to cope with seeing the body moving around and stuff, but not knowing who was inside of it.

"You about ready there?" Jared called to me and I nodded.

Once I got closer, Kyle clapped a hand on my back and leaned in to actually whisper in my ear.

"Take a picture, it lasts longer."

"Shut up," I said, pushing him away from me as we all walked out of the kitchen towards the main field.

We arrived there and Mel and Sunny left us because they were on laundry for the day. I looked away while they said their goodbyes and made my way over to the barrel of water to start getting our supplies out and make myself busy. Kyle and Jared eventually joined me and the tree of us worked systematically to water the crops in our area. As always, it got really hot in there very fast, so I stopped to take off my shirt and attempt to cool myself down when I heard Jeb's voice elevated over everyone else's in the room.

"Who's he yelling at now?" Kyle asked and we all turned around to see who he was clearly upset at.

My stomach dropped down into my feet when I saw that it was the girl's body. I instinctively wanted to run over and protect her from Jeb, but I willed myself to stay where I was; she probably wouldn't have wanted me over there anyway.

"What the hell is she doing?"Jared muttered, throwing down his spade and making his way over to them.

"Jared, maybe she doesn't want you to go over there!" I called after him, but he ignored me and continued on.

"You're seriously just going to stand here and not do anything?" Kyle asked indigenously and I nodded.

"What else do you want me to do, Kyle? I'm all confused and stuff. I can't exactly waltz over there and stand up for her, because that would mean that I believe her."

"Is it really such a bad thing?" he asked and I looked away. Truthfully, it probably wouldn't have been, but I didn't know if I could forgive her so quickly.

"Forget it. If you're not going to go investigate, I will." Kyle turned off the water valve and marched away from me, leaving me standing with the hose and a shovel in my hand. I stared between the group and the tools in my hand before dropping them and jogging to catch up with Kyle and Jared.

"What's going on?" I heard Jared ask as I came running up to them. "Why are you guys arguing?"

"I just want to do some work and Jeb isn't allowing me to," 'Wanda' answered him, turning to look at the group. When our eyes met, I could have sworn I had seen a flicker of hope in them, but it was gone before I could look again.

"She just got back and I want to give her a few days reprieve, but she ain't taking it," Jeb explained and I bit back a smile; that was such a Wanda thing for her to do, trying to refuse the rest that she probably needed.

"Why don't you want to take some time off? You just got back here, no one will care. We didn't do anything for a few days after the raid like normal; so it's the same thing. You've never had a problem with this before," Kyle pointed out and she rolled her silver eyes.

"Because I don't need the 'rest time' like you all seem to think that I do," she replied, putting her hands on her hips. "The entire time that I was at Pet and Cloud Spinner's house, all I did was sit around all day and go to school for a little bit; that's all. Cloud Spinner wouldn't let me do anything else because she was afraid of losing Pet again. I'm sick and tired of doing nothing and I just want to do some hard work for once."

I had to admit that her argument was very convincing and deep down I knew who she really was; Pet wouldn't have referred to herself in the third person, nor would any other soul have spoken like that about another soul. Still, I wasn't ready to admit it to anyone, so I kept my mouth shut as they went back and forth over what to do with her. Eventually they decided to let her work with Brandt and Aaron, under the direct supervision of us, so we had to move closer to them.

Once we were resettled and went back to work, it was very hard for me to concentrate on the task at hand. I kept on glancing over to see what she was doing and to making sure that nothing was happening to her; though I knew that if Aaron or Brandt tried to pull something, they'd have Jared, Kyle, Jeb and his gun to answer to, so they weren't about to do anything to compromise their security in the caves. At least I hoped so.

By the time that we finished we were all sufficiently tired and dirty, so we put everything away and started to go our separate ways. I wondered where the girl was staying, but didn't ask or act on that thought; instead I just trudged my ways back to my room and collapsed on my bed. Clearly I needed to regularly participate in hard work or it took a toll on me. Nothing hurt, but I was just so tired that I fell right asleep.

When I woke up again, a quick glance at the holes in the ceiling told me that it was well after dark and I'd slept for hours. I grabbed some stuff to change into because I knew that I needed to wash after working and made my way down to the washroom. It must have been super late out, as I didn't run into anyone on my way; which was good, since I still wasn't ready to face anyone; particularly Melanie about that situation.

I'd grabbed a lantern and taken it down with me and it illuminated the outer room where I saw a figure sitting cross legged outside of the pool room. Once I got closer I was able to see that it was Lily sitting there and she looked almost asleep. Quietly so that I didn't disturb her, I clicked off the light and sat down a little ways away from her against the wall.

"Ian is that you?" she whispered and I looked over in the darkness at Lily.

"Yeah, it's me."

"You know when I said that I'd be here for you no matter what that I meant it, right?"

"I know that Lily, I just don't want to bother you with everything," I replied, running my hands over my face.

"Look, I didn't want to bother you with what I was going through after Wes died, but you still persisted and helped me through that time. I just want to return the favour," she said, clicking on her little lantern and turning to face me.

"Please Ian, tell me what you're really feeling," she pleaded and I looked over at her, nearly giving in.

"I can't, Lily."

"Then tell me what you can," she insisted, moving closer to me while I closed my eyes.

"It's just.... I want to tell people, I really do, but I don't know if I can admit it to them without making myself seem crazy," I finally relented and began to tell her how I felt without admitting my latest revelation.

"It seems to me like you still love her," Lily said after I'd finished. "I don't think you're ready or willing to admit it to anyone, but you are."

"Of course I am," I told her. "There is no way that I could fall out of love with her that quickly; Wanda was my whole life and I would do anything for her."

"They why won't you take her back? I know that you can see that it's really Wanda out there; most of us can. Everyone that I've talked to can see it in everything that she does. Wanda had her own little quirks and distinctive things about her and they're all there. Trust me, if it was a different soul in that body, you would know immediately."

"I guess."

"No, you know that, Ian," she countered, hitting my kneecap gently.

Brandt emerged from the pool room and Lily made to stand and take her turn in there.

"Thanks, Lily. I guess I needed that," I said to her and she beamed before wrapping her arms around my neck and hugging me quickly.

"Any time Ian. Seriously," she whispered before standing and going into the dark room.

Brandt kind of stood there for a few seconds, seeming to be processing the little exchange between Lily and I and he looked a little confused. I held back a smile at his facial expression and couldn't help but to laugh in the end.

"Are you okay, Brandt?" I asked him in between my laughter and he cracked a smile.

"Yeah. It's just.... you and Lily now?" he asked and I sobered up immediately.

"No. We were just talking, that's all."

"Are you sure? She looked a little cozy with you right there."

"Knock it off Brandt," I told him, standing to stretch my legs as they were cramping up.

"You know, it would be cute to see you and Lily together as a couple. She needs someone after what happened before, and you're clearly hurting now; so it's perfect and..."

Before he could finish his sentence, I had shoved him hard up against the wall pinned him there. I glared at him, holding back my anger and the urge to punch him, as I knew that it would not accomplish anything at all.

"Lily and I are not, and will never be anything more than friends," I growled at him, looking right into his eyes, hoping to hell that he would get the message. "And I don't want to hear you telling people otherwise."

"All right, holy crap chill out," he said, pushing me back away from him. "What, you can't take a joke anymore or something? What happened to you, Ian? You've changed a whole hell of a lot since you got back from that raid."

"I know, all right, you don't need to tell me as well. I wouldn't be this way if Wanda were with me, you know," I said and he shrugged.

"I can't comment on that, because you know my feelings about Wanda, but I can appreciate how much you need her. I had a girl before all of this too, you know," he admitted, shoving his hands in his pockets and looked very uncomfortable, and very unlike the tough guy that he usually was.

"You lost her?" I asked and he nodded.

"Yeah, I did. I did everything I could to get her to run away with me, but she loved her parents too much to leave them. She didn't really see that there was anything wrong with them and thought I was crazy for thinking that people were trying to change us,"

"Her parents were one of the first ones changed, and they gave her up as well. One day she was called out of class and when she came back she was different and was trying to get me to go and visit her doctor because he really helped her. I knew that I had to run then and leave her behind. It still kills me. I saw what they had done to her and that's part of the reason why I hate them all so much."

It all made sense then; all of his rage and hatred towards Wanda and Sunny, and his need for us to bring back more bodies all the time to 'cure' them. Out of anyone, he had been one of the hardest workers out on raids, to the point where it was almost stupid, but I could see that it was only because he wanted to hurt the ones who had hurt his girl.

"What was her name?" I asked quietly, not wanting to set him off or anything.

"Samantha. Met her in my first year Psych class at the U of California, we clicked and never looked back. Until I had to leave her," he told me and I nodded.

"Look, I'm really sorry man," I offered but he shook his head.

"It's all in the past. All I can do now is make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else in here. I've got to go, I'm on patrol at midnight and it's nearly there. I'll see you later, Ian," he said, turning to walk away.

"All right, see you."

"Oh, and Ian?" he turned and walked backwards so that he could face me.

"Yeah Brandt?"

"Mention that to anyone and I'll kill you," he threatened and I nodded, knowing that he was completely serious.

I leaned back against the wall while I waited for Lily to finish up and debated about what I could do about the whole 'Wanda' thing. Part of me wanted to resolve it then and there, but the logical side beat the idea down. I couldn't; she would question my sudden change of heart, and I would partially be lying to myself and everyone because I would be faking the fact that I was totally over it when I wasn't. I really didn't want to believe that Pet was out there, but I had no concrete proof that she wasn't. I didn't know what to do anymore.

**Wanda POV**

"Do you want me to beat it out of him?" Jamie offered at breakfast one morning and I nearly choked on my food in shock.

"Jamie!" I exclaimed while coughing a little

"What? This is stupid. It's been nearly two weeks and he hasn't even said anything to you about anything at all! He just needs someone to give him a talking to is all," he reasoned and I shook my head.

"No, Jamie you can't hit him," I told him after I'd stopped my little choking thing. "It's not right."

"Yeah Jamie, what are you thinking?" Mel asked, smacking him upside the head. "Besides, if anyone's going to beat up Ian, it won't be you."

"It'll be me," Kyle announced as he walked by with two plates of toast and I couldn't help but to laugh.

I sobered up quickly though when I noticed that Ian had run into the kitchen and right by us. It was true that nothing had been said between us for 12 days, and it was pretty pathetic that I had been counting the days. He walked by and sat down with Sunny, Kyle, Lily and Brandt in a spot that was directly facing me, and I couldn't help but to watch him as he ate his small, measly portion. I noticed that he looked downright miserable and I wanted to make him happier, but I couldn't; especially since he seemed to be avoiding me at all costs.

I watched as he took a few bites before pushing the plate away, leaving half of it uneaten. I could relate to that; I basically had no appetite anymore, but I really wished that he would eat so that he wouldn't get sick. I'd forgotten about everything that was happening around me, but I was snapped back into reality when Ian picked up his head and looked directly at me. I held his gaze for a moment before dropping it and looking down at the table, turning a little red at the fact that I was caught.

"Don't be embarrassed," Mel whispered from beside me and I blushed a little more knowing that she had seen me.

"What are you going to do today, Wanda?" Jamie asked, knowing that it was my day off.

Everyone had begged and pleaded with me to take a break, so I had relented and agreed to one day to attempt at getting them off of my back. It didn't really work, but at least they had stopped for the time being.

"I think I'm going to straighten up my stuff and my bed," I told him, thinking of the little bit of a mess that I had left down in Doc's hospital where I had been living.

"That's it?" Jared asked from the other side of the table, reaching for Melanie's hand, which she gave to him and let him hold.

"Well, to start off, anyways," I said, watching their hands, wishing that I could have Ian back more than ever, but the ball was still in his court, so to say.

"It's a good start," Mel said lamely and I gave her a funny look, which made the both of us laugh. I chanced a glance at Ian then and he looked away quickly, which lead me to believe that he was looking over at us.

"Jamie, let's go," Sharon called to him as she passed the table with Freedom and Isaiah in tow. They both gave me smile and waves and I waved back at them. Jamie grumbled a little bit before getting up and following them out.

We all finished up after that and left the cave and parted ways as Mel and Jared went to work and I went down to Doc's hospital. Doc wasn't there yet, so I set out straightening out the cot that I had used the night before. I had to wait for a cot to free up because they were all in use before I could move down there and out of the storage cave from before. I had heard that they made two people double up in a bed so that I could have a free cot.

Once I'd straightened that up, I wandered around and picked up the few scattered pieces of clothes that I had strewn about the night before. I had felt guilty about it, but I was so tired from work the day before that I had just left it.

I heard footsteps coming down the tunnel towards the room and thought that it was Doc coming down to check on something, but the wheezing of breath told me otherwise.

"Hey Wanda," Jeb called out to me, stopping to catch his breath.

"Hi Jeb, what's up?" I said to him, smiling.

"I know that it's your day off, but I've got a special job for you and I really could use your help. If you don't mind, that is."

"I totally don't mind!" I said to him. I really didn't have anything to do for the rest of the day, so I thought that it was perfect.

"Great, just come with me; we've got to pick someone else up to do this as well," he instructed me and I nodded.

"Alright, let's go," he said and I followed him out of Doc's room and down the hall.

Jeb didn't say anything to me the whole time that we travelled through the caves, which I thought was odd because he always had things to say, but I didn't question it. He serenaded me with his whistling for awhile as well, so that was at least entertaining as he blindly led me somewhere.

He led me all the way to the second field where I knew that they were harvesting the crops and right to the middle of it. There were three men working there, and I could tell that because they had their shirts off, but they weren't really working, they was sort of lounging in the dirt and joking with each other. Two of them were a lot more rowdy than the third, who just sort of sat there and smiled every once in awhile.

I didn't know who the guys were, but as Jeb trampled across the already harvested dirt, I was able to see that it was Jared, Kyle and Ian sitting there. At the sight of Ian sitting there shirtless and sweaty, my heart began to race in my chest and I blushed a little bit, casting my eyes anywhere but at him.

"Ian!" Jeb called out to him and my breath got caught in my chest; I really hoped that he wasn't the 'someone else' that we were getting for this job of his.

"Yeah Jeb?" Ian answered and my stomach fluttered at the sound of his voice; it had been too long since I'd heard it and I was quickly losing my cool.

"C'mere!"

I watched as Ian stood up and brushed his hands off of the backs of his jeans before making his way over to Jeb and I. I purposely looked away while he walked over just so that I could hopefully make it less awkward for him, but when I chanced a look at him; I noticed that Ian was looking directly at me.

"What did you need, Jeb?" Ian asked, not taking his eyes off of me and I turned bright red under his gaze.

"Get a shirt on, I've got a job for you and Wanda here," Jeb said, turning and starting to walk away.

"Wait, what?" I asked, trotting to catch up to him.

"You heard me; I've got a job for you and Ian," he repeated simply as Ian caught up and walked beside me. I looked up at him and he just shrugged, shaking his head.

"Are you sure there isn't anyone else who would be better for this?" Ian asked and Jeb shook his head.

"Nope. You and Wanda. An' I don't want to hear another word about it," he said, effectively silencing the argument that was at the tip of my tongue.

We followed Jeb silently along to the spider web of hallways that led to all of the bedrooms where he stopped.

"You can get a shirt now, I'll wait for you to get back before I explain what you're to do," Jeb instructed Ian and leaned back on the wall. "I ain't waiting all day either, so hurry up."

Ian sighed before jogging off in the direction of his room and returned a few minutes later with an old gray shirt, that I knew he never wore unless he was totally out of clothes to wear. It looked a little more worn in since the last time I'd seen it, so it was clear that he'd been wearing it a lot.

"Now I've been receiving a lot of complaints about the largeness of the holes in peoples' ceiling in their rooms, and we can't have that. They're saying that there's too much sunlight coming in and they're worried about someone possibly stepping on the roofs and falling in; should anyone step on it. Basically, if someone has a light on at night, you can see it clear through," Jeb explained and I sighed; it sounded boring.

"The people on patrol near this area; namely Brandt, are noticing the light and we can't have that anymore, can we?" he didn't wait for an answer before plowing on. "I need you two, and you two only, to go around and assess the ceilings, writing down the ones that are the worst so that we can get on with fixin' them."

"But won't people be upset if we just go into their rooms?" I asked, thinking about the privacy thing.

"Everyone's working," Jeb answered and I nodded. "But I've still got permission from everyone for you to go in; not that I needed it, since this is my place and all, but still. Now get goin'."

Jeb pushed off the wall and left Ian and I standing there, watching his retreating back. After he was gone, I turned to my left and looked up at Ian, who smiled and shook his head. Jeb surely was crazy if he really expected us to work together on a job that would surely take all day, especially since Ian wasn't even talking to me, and I didn't think that he believed me.

I really wished that the old man wasn't so cunning, as I'd fallen for his little game of whatever this was hook, line and sinker. The fact that Ian was so calm was also making me nervous and I really didn't know how this was going to go over. I wrapped my arms around myself and bit my lip in nervousness as we just stood there, neither of us wanting to be the first one to speak.

**A/N: 7,783 words :) A little shorter, but a lot more dialogue, I believe.**

**So they're being forced to work together by the cunning Jeb. Only he would think of something like that : )**

**I'll be updating next weekend for sure... I have a few things to do this week as it's my last week of school, and then exams start next week, so I'll have plenty of time to write during that time!  
I can't believe that it's almost December though! Time really flies!! Although I'm a little sad that we haven't had any real snow up here (in Ontario) yet! There's supposed to be a storm coming this week, but we'll see. Last year we had like 10cm by this time! Crazy weather...**

**Anywhoo. Have any of you seen New Moon yet? What did you think?  
I've seen it twice :P It's very interesting to see it on opening night and then again afterwards... two very different crowds and it's kind of neat to see the different reactions.**

**Review : )**


	33. Work This Out

**Hey everyone! Here`s the new chapter for you : )**

**Thanks to PrincessSxySwan, piccolover22, hanaharoo, TK-MR, TeamIanandEdward, RawSugarX23, 123xyz, brokenfromthepast, xxMarzbbyxx, iamnicolecullen, AliceLuvsU, winky23, islandofdreams, HockeeChica, anoek013 and Separate Entity for your wonderfully awesome reviews! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Ian POV**

When I saw Jeb marching his way across the field towards Kyle, Jared and I, I didn't think anything different of it; I figured that he was just coming to yell at Kyle again or something.

"What did you do now Kyle?" I asked him and he rolled his eyes.

"I didn't do shit Ian, why do you always just assume that it was me?" he glared at me and I shrugged.

"Maybe it's because Jeb always yells at you for something around here," Jared added, shrugging his shoulders and I smiled a little bit.

Jeb called out to me then and Kyle smirked in my direction but I ignored it, choosing to stand up as Jeb got closer to us. I knew that Kyle would make some sort of smart ass comment, but I knew that it wouldn't be that bad as I never got in trouble. In fact, since I'd decided to leave my room I'd done more work than I actually needed to; I just had to keep busy and my mind off of the whole subject somehow.

Jeb shifted a bit to the right then and exposed the girl to me and my heart leapt up into my throat. Even after all those weeks of being apart from her my body still reacted to the sight of her. I knew by the way that she wouldn't look at me that it was Wanda, but it was still very hard for me to admit. I needed to have another conversation with her in order to make my final decision.

When he told me that he had a job for Wanda and I and turned to walk away, I nearly choked; there was no way that he could do that to us especially since we weren't talking and everything. She seemed to recover quickly and chased him down, trying to get Jeb to repeat what he'd say from what I caught of what she was saying by the time that I jogged over to them. I saw her look up at me, her eyes full of fear and apprehension and I felt guilty that she would feel that way around me. I tried to get her out of the job, but Jeb was adamant that it had to be us; there was no use trying to sway his decision as it wouldn't work.

He eventually stopped at the entrance to the bedrooms and ordered me to get a shirt from my room so that we could start. I nodded and started walking quickly down the hall and pulled the red door aside quickly, as he made it clear that he didn't want to wait a long time. Looking around my room, I realized just then how much of a pigsty it really was. I sifted through the dirty clothes on the floor looking for something clean to put on my body, but couldn't find anything.

I ran a hand through my hair, sufficiently freaked out at the fact that I had to work with the girl no matter what; Jeb had cornered us good and there was no way that we could get out of this. I spotted a relatively clean shirt tucked underneath the two mattresses and I wondered for a second how that would have gotten under there, but I didn't have time to ponder that as Jeb would eat me for taking too long.

I looked down at the grey shirt that I had put on and shrugged, seeing as how it was a little dirty but it was the best that I could do. I really hated the shirt, but I only wore it when I absolutely had to. I shook my head, leaving the room and closing the door behind me, making my way back out to where Jared and the girl were waiting for me.

As I got closer to them I noticed that she was looking at me and I stared back, but she averted her gaze to the ground once she saw I was gazing back at her. I really wished that she didn't do that, but there was no way that I had any say in what she did around me. As far as she still knew I hated her guts. At that realization I felt a pang of sadness run through me, knowing that I caused her to feel that way about me, but then I cursed myself for focussing on that and not what Jeb was instructing us on what to do.

I tuned in and caught the end of it, talking about people noticing the light and I glanced up at the ceiling, figuring that was what he meant. I had to admit that there was on in my room that was getting kind of big as well, so clearly other people had noticed. I deduced that he wanted us to go check them judging by the questions that she was asking him before he took off as usual.

We stood awkwardly in the hallway after Jeb left and I shoved both of my hands in my pockets, shaking my head at Jeb's antics but smiling at the same time. I noticed that Wanda was shifting a bit uncomfortably beside me and I could feel her gaze on me, but I refused to look down and see what was written across her face. I wasn't sure if I could handle that.

I sighed as I could see out of the corner of my eye that she had wrapped her arms around her body and started to sway back and forth on the spot. I knew that she wouldn't want to speak to me, but I didn't want to be the one to break the silence that had fallen over us either. Unfortunately, we couldn't stand there doing this stupid dance around each other or else the job wouldn't get done and Jeb wouldn't be too happy about that.

I looked down at her until I probably had made her uncomfortable and she looked up at me. I watched as the blush painted her face and I nodded off in the direction of one of the storage rooms where I knew that we had paper and pens to use for this task. She nodded and followed me as I led her down there, grabbing a lantern as it was dark in there.

I stopped just outside the doorway to the room and held the lantern out so that it lit up the small room, motioning for her to go in first. She ducked her head, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and stepping forward. I went in behind her and she handed me what we needed before leaving and walking back down to the bedrooms before stopping and standing there a little awkwardly.

I had ditched the lantern back at the storage room and just watched to see if she would make the first notion of speaking, but it was clear that she wasn't going to make a move.

"So how do you want to do this?" I finally asked, breaking our silence and she looked a little shocked, frowning. I ran a hand through my hair as I knew that I was probably confusing her.

"I mean, how do you want to go about doing this job that Jeb gave us?" I clarified and she shrugged, looking down at the ground.

I sighed and waved my hand towards the hallway that was to our left.

"We could start over there and work our way around," I suggested and she nodded, turning to walk towards the hall that was the farthest away.

I followed behind her, watching as she walked down the hall. I fought the overwhelming urge to wrap my hands around her waist and pull her back to me so that her back was up against me and continued to walk down the hall with my hands in balls.

She stopped at the last door and looked at it, biting her bottom lip. I groaned internally at the little action as I used to love it when she did that; I would always lean over and press my lips to hers in order to get her to let go of it before I kissed her, taking her bottom lip and sucking on it a little and...

I stopped thinking about what I used to do to her as it began to stir feelings in me that I hadn't felt since I'd lost her. I didn't waste any time moving aside the makeshift wooden door and stepping inside the room before her. I knew I should have let her go in first, but I couldn't let her see the visible physical effect that little memory had on me.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" I heard her ask and I turned my upper body to look at her and saw that she was looking up at the ceiling looking at little confused. "I mean, how do you know if they're bigger than normal to asses this?"

"Uh well, they're just bigger," I said stupidly, scanning the ceiling for an example. "I don't really know, I've never even heard of someone doing this job before; heck, he's never made any of us do something like this before."

"Jeb would do something like that," she murmured, still looking up.

"I think those ones are all okay," I said, shrugging. "I don't think those are in any danger of being bigger," I bullshitted, not really knowing what I was talking about.

"On to the next room?" she asked and I nodded.

We did basically the same things throughout all the rooms in that hallway before moving onto the next two beside it. We found some holes that were significantly bigger than the others that we'd seen, so I wrote them down as we moved along.

We searched Sunny and Kyle's room, though there wasn't much point simply because they only had one small hole that Kyle had made for them so I suggested that we skip it and move on. The next room that we left till near the end of that hall was Mel and Jared's room. I moved aside the curtain in the door and motioned with my hand to let her go first.

"Thanks," she mumbled and I nodded.

She looked around before her gaze landed on their bed and I heard her sigh a little bit. I wondered why she looked at it with almost longing and a bit of jealousy ran through me at the thought of her still having feelings for Jared and wanting to be in that bed with him like she was before she'd been taken out of Mel's body. I knew that it was stupid of me to think like that, but I didn't know what to think of her any more.

"What's wrong?" I asked her and she shook her head.

"Nothing," she responded, still looking at it. I then wondered where she'd been staying and sleeping, since she wasn't in my room, or anyone else's that I knew of.

"Where are you sleeping?" I asked and she twirled around to face me, looking shocked that I'd asked her something about her, and not about the ceilings we were looking at.

"I... uh. Why do you care?" she asked, getting a little defensive and I tried to smile at her to ease her tension.

"I was just wondering where is all," I rand my hand through my hair, choosing to look up at the holes instead, wishing that I hadn't brought it up in the first place.

I could feel her gaze on me but it took all of my willpower to not look down at her and see the expression on her face.

"In Doc's room," she responded and I looked down at her then. Her face had softened as she looked at me and she lifted up a corner of her mouth before looking down. "I mean, you wanted to know."

"Why are you staying in there?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"There's no one else for me to be," she said simply, scratching the back of her neck. "I stayed in the storage room from before until they could free up a cot for me. I think they made someone sleep on the same mattress as someone else in order for that to happen and I tried to argue it, but they wouldn't listen to me."

_"She would do that"_ I thought to myself. She was always selfless and they probably had to force her into taking the cot, but the thought of her staying in that dark room that was half full of boxes made me a little angry. How could they have let her stay there? She could have bunked with Mel or Jared or something...

"I didn't want to," she said out of the blue. "I didn't want to move in here because I didn't want to impose upon them and put them out. It was just easier for me, and for everyone to have me stay down there."

I frowned at her and she offered me a small smile.

"You said all that out loud," she said and I nodded. "I think we're done here."

She led me out of the room and I suggested that we move on to the next tunnel instead of going into my room to look around there. I wanted to save that one for last so that she had the option of not going into it and doing whatever it was that she wanted to. It seemed like it took forever for us to go through the rest of the rooms and by the time that we were done we had a pretty hefty list of rooms with significant holes in their ceilings.

We walked back out of the last tunnel after we'd gone through all the rest of the rooms and into the open space around all of the entrances to them, and I shoved my hands in my pockets. She was still writing down the last room that we'd gone through and noted that there were three that needed to be fixed and hadn't looked up to see my hesitation yet. Once she finished and looked up at me, she saw that I was looking directly at her and she blushed.

"There's a... still one more room to look through, but you don't have to come and look through it if you don't want to. I won't tell Jeb," I tried to joke, but it failed.

"Your room, right?" she asked and I nodded.

_"_Our_ room,"_ I almost corrected her, but bit my tongue to stop it from coming out.

"I noticed that you skipped it earlier and I wondered why," she whispered.

"Well, I mean I don't want you to be uncomfortable with having to go in there. I can do it myself if you want to run ahead and get Jeb or something," I offered and she shook her head.

"Why would you care if I would be uncomfortable in there?" she asked and I couldn't help but to look directly into her silver eyes, noting the fire that seemed to flame behind them. "I mean, you're the one who doesn't believe me at all, even after everything that we'd been through."

Hearing her getting all riled up was hurting me, so I just nodded and she shook her head before marching in the direction of my room. She stopped outside the two doors holding her hand out and faltered a bit before finally touching it and moving it to the side. She seemed sort of paralyzed and rooted to the spot and I didn't know if she was going to go inside at all. I would have taken the lead and just gone right in, but I didn't want to seem rude or anything. Instead, I was going to let her take her time and decide for herself if she was going to go on inside.

**Wanda POV**

Standing outside of Ian's door was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. I realized that I'd said that a lot, and I'd certainly had a lot of experiences to compare that one too, but it still was all the same.

I saw that Ian was just standing there watching me out of the corner of my eye and it added to my nervousness a little bit, but I was determined not to focus on him; I was going to go into that room. He had already basically said that it was okay, I was just concerned that he'd change his mind or something. I needed to see that room one last time for a bit of closure, since we hadn't made any sort of progress and it was clear that I was never going to get Ian back. I had screwed us up big time; that was for sure.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the room, snapping my eyes directly to the ceiling, not wanting to see anything but it for the time being. I heard Ian's heavy footsteps behind me as he probably stepped inside the room as well and I felt his presence at my side and I scoured the ceiling for larger holes.

"It doesn't look to be so bad; I mean I haven't noticed anything unusual and I live here," he finally said and I nodded.

"Okay," I replied, letting my gaze shift from the ceiling above to the room around me. As soon as I did, I was bombarded with memories of the room, and of us together in it.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, Ian's scent entering my nose and overwhelming me with it. I felt a little depressed though, knowing that I would only have that brief moment to try and remember his distinct scent, for I would probably never get to experience it again unless I happened to bump into him or something.

We were quiet as I opened up my eyes again and finally looked at the scene around me; it was an absolute mess. Ian's clothes looked like they'd been flung haphazardly around the room and I could tell that they hadn't been washed or anything. There were a few plates stacked to the side, but they were completely empty and there wasn't anything growing on them. His bed wasn't made; the sheets all twisted up together. I noticed that the mirror he'd made was gone and I saw some sparkling shards peeking out from underneath a shirt that he had put over top of it, so I guessed that he had broken it at some point.

What I did notice that struck me as odd was the fact that he had still kept my extra clothes right where I had left them. In all honesty I had expected him to have thrown them away or given them to someone else, not to have kept them in the right place.

"So..." Ian said, breaking the silence between us. "Sorry that it's a little messy in here."

"That's okay," I replied, nodding my head. "How come you haven't cleaned it up any?"

"Well, honestly because I haven't had any motivation to," he answered, and I looked to see him shove his hands into the front pockets of his jeans before looking right at me.

"Oh," I replied, looking away from his intense stare. "What do you mean by motivation?"

"Since I'm all alone in here, it doesn't really matter to me what it looks like," he clarified and I nodded before what he'd say struck me as odd. Why was he in there all alone? There wasn't enough room for him to have his own room after all.

"I thought that you had someone in here," I said to him, shrugging my shoulders. "I mean, wouldn't you want to keep it looking nice for Lily or something?"

"What?" I looked up at Ian as the tone of his voice frankly scared me; it was definitely hard, and also steely. I saw that his jaw was tight and his fists were clenched again like they were when we entered the first room that day.

"Well... I... um," I stuttered, feeling a little afraid of the blazing look in his eyes. "I just figured that since you were spending so much time with Lily that something was going on between you two is all."

I sounded weak and pathetic and I couldn't help but to take a step back from him just in case he decided to lash out or something. Once I did that, the expression on his face immediately softened into one of remorse and guilt.

"I'm sorry," he apologized and I frowned. He had no need to apologize, after all, I was the one who'd set him off in the first place.

"No Ian, I'm..."

"Don't you apologize," he said, pointing a finger at me. "I guess I could see where you'd gotten that notion from, but I can assure you that nothing is going on with me and Lily. She's just my friend and is trying to help me."

I nodded at his explanation and felt bad that he'd gotten so upset about that. I wondered what it could have meant, for him to get so defensive over that subject.

"Can we talk?" Ian blurted it out and I was a little taken back by his question; I wasn't expecting it.

"I mean, just here, face to face. I need to have a talk with you," he said, running a hand through his hair and I nodded at the pleading expression on his face. Even though I knew that those words meant almost certain heartbreak, I was still willing to give him whatever he wanted in these last few moments of ours together.

"Um, yeah okay," I agreed, wanting to spend more time with him anyways. I wasn't ready to go back to doing nothing in my day just yet.

"I'd suggest that you sit down, but there's really nowhere decent _to_ sit," he said and I shrugged, using my feet to move a few shirts around, clearing a space and then I sat in it with my back against the wall.

Ian shrugged and leaned up against the wall beside the doors and I looked up at him, waiting for him to speak. This was his idea to talk, and I had no idea what he wanted to say so I wasn't exactly going to start us off.

"I'm sorry," he said out of the blue and I looked up to see Ian's face to make sure that I'd heard that he had actually said it and I hadn't imagined it.

"I really am sorry," he said again and I was sure that my eyes widened.

"Wh... what do you have to be sorry for?" I asked, still slightly shocked at his outright apology for something.

"It was wrong of me to yell at you and treat you that way; and for me to make assumptions without really hearing you out first," he elaborated and I nodded.

"It's okay," I said softly, bringing my knees up and wrapping my arms around them.

"But it's not," he said almost fiercely and I looked up at him, still maintaining my body position. It was one that I had taken to assuming whenever I felt threatened or alone, but he didn't have to know that I was a little frightened of him. I had a feeling that it would only make matters worse.

"Sure it is. You have every right to be mad at me like that; no matter how much it might possibly hurt," I said, shrugging. "After all, what I did was pretty despicable. I really don't hold any of your anger against you; I knew that you would react that way and lash out."

"I still didn't have the right to, no matter what you say," he bit back and I closed my eyes.

"Are we done? Did you just want to talk so that we could get into another argument and go around in circles about it?" I asked, placing my forehead down on my knees.

"No, I uh... wanted to talk to you about why you really did that back at the hospital," he admitted and I closed my eyes, silently wondering if he knew that it was me by the way he referred to it as what "you" did, but he could have also meant Pet.

"What do you want to know?" I asked into my jeans and heard him sigh before there was some movement from his direction.

"Why."

"I thought I already explained that to you," I mumbled and I wasn't so sure that he could have heard me.

"You did, but I want to hear why you did it from the bottom of your heart. Why you wouldn't let any of the rest of us go? Why didn't you come with us? Why did you say those things to me?" I could hear his voice breaking and knew just then exactly how much pain I had caused him throughout everything.

"I didn't let any of you get caught because I knew what they would do to any of you; I thought I made that part quite clear. I just couldn't live with myself knowing that I had caused one of you to have been killed. I sacrificed myself because I didn't want them to chase us anymore. I knew that once they had me, then they would leave you alone for the most part, relying on me to pass along you deep, dark secrets,

"I didn't, by the way," I said, lifting my head to see the slightly panicked expression on his face. "I lied right to their faces about everything and they didn't even question it."

"But you're such a bad liar," he said and I shrugged.

"To all of you humans maybe, but remember souls don't lie to each other, so they believed me because of that. I couldn't give any of you away to them Ian; no matter who you think that I am, I couldn't do that."

"You still should have just run away with us," he murmured and I shrugged.

"It wouldn't have made a difference; they had the van rigged and would have known exactly where we were anyways, I told you that before" I said, pressing my face harder into my knees.

"I know."

"So I let you all get away; I gave you another chance at living this life instead of having them follow us and take everyone down with them."

He was silent then, but I refused to lift my head up off of my knees; I was tired out and couldn't have been bothered to.

"And Pet?" he asked, his voice clouded over with emotion and I finally lifted my head, only letting my eyes focus on the messy bed in front of me.

"Gone. Shipped off to another planet," I said firmly, biting my lip.

"You don't seem too sure about that," he said, probably seeing that I was gnawing away at it.

"I am. She's gone and never coming back to this planet or this body in our lifetimes," I nodded, trying to prove my point.

As the silence wracked on it seemed like hours that we sat there. My bottom started to become sore from sitting on it like that for so long, but I ignored it, as it served as another physical reminder of what I had screwed up.

What made me feel even worse was having to sit there and hear Ian cry. I could hear him sobbing from where he had slumped to the ground a few feet away from me and there was nothing that I could do about it. It almost felt like Ian's pain was bursting outwards and I could feel it radiating through my chest, hurting me with every sob I heard him take and every shudder of breath from him.

I rested my elbows on top of my knees and then held my face between my palms as I sat there listening to him cry. I could have probably gotten up and walked away, but I felt morally obligated to sit there and endure that with him; after all I'd done to him the least I could have done was sit there. I wasn't entirely sure that he wanted me there with him, but I knew from experience that he definitely would have said something if he thought otherwise.

I heard his sobbing die down until it was just sniffles, but I still kept my head from looking over at him. He needed at least another moment to himself to pull it together before I stood up and left him alone to think. I didn't realize that my words had that big of an effect on him, and I wondered if he thought I was Wanda or Pet after all of that.

He finally stopped the little bit of hyperventilating that had fallen upon him after crying for so long and I felt guilty for not even trying to comfort him. I had to practically restrain myself so that I wouldn't go and wrap my arms around him, as it was in my nature to. I realized then that I was still hopelessly in love with him, and he had to make a decision about what we were going to do then; I couldn't make up his mind. That was something that Ian and Ian alone had to do. I kind of pitied him for having to decide like that, but then I realized that he'd brought that upon himself anyways.

"Wanda?" Ian choked out and my breath caught in my chest. Had he really just said what I thought that he did?

I let my hands fall away from my face and I slowly turned my head in Ian's direction. I nearly cried out and ran over to hug him at the expression on his face and the way that he looked.

He was completely facing me while still leaning up against the wall, almost as if it was his lifeline and was holding him upright. Ian's legs were curled up underneath him, but facing me at the same time, and his arms were held at his sides, almost as if he were fighting the same feeling that I was experiencing; the need to hold each other and never let go.

Tears still silently rolled down his cheek as I allowed myself to look up and into his eyes. I saw that his brilliant blue eyes were filled with tears that were threatening to fall, but what struck me the most was that they were full of hope. Through it all, he was hoping that I really was Wanda and that I would respond to him. I could also see the doubt and the beginnings of rejection as I was taking so long to answer and I never wanted to see those three emotions cross his face again. I wanted to take away all of his pain, but I wasn't sure how he would react once I confirmed what he was asking; I really didn't want him to freak out, but deep down I knew that he wouldn't.

**Ian POV**

Her silence was killing me, both literally and figuratively.

I couldn't believe that I had actually broken right down and full out cried right in front of her, but I could not bring myself to care. I was thankful that she didn't get up and run out of the room as I knew that girls didn't usually see any men express their emotions like that, but I was just so overwhelmed that it happened before I could even begin to stop myself.

I wasn't entirely sure why exactly I was crying; I couldn't remember the initial reason any more, but it evolved into mourning what I'd put her through when she had finally arrived back home. Instead of being quiet and listening to her like I should have done, I had basically exploded and hadn't looked around me to see the effect that it had on everyone.

I cried over the fact that she had slept down in that dirty storage room from before and that she was in Doc's room of all places when if I had only believed her in the first place she would have been cuddled up by my side each night. I cried because I had basically split up our group of friends because of this. I knew that Kyle and Sunny would talk to Mel and Jared, but it wasn't the same; almost as if they had silently chosen sides whenever I was in the same room as them.

When I was finally able to get myself under control, I looked over at her and my heart broke a little more seeing her sitting there looking like she was in some sort of pain or distress. I made up my mind then. I knew that it was my Wanderer sitting there; I just had to be absolutely sure.

I called her name looking right at her but she didn't respond, and it made me very nervous that I was wrong again. I tried to be hopeful as she looked over at me, but I knew that feelings of rejection were stirring up inside of me because she hadn't answered yet. Tears still ran down my face, but I refused to wipe them away like some sort of girl like that; I just let them fall. I had to hold myself back from her so that I wouldn't attack her and hold her like I really wanted to, and that was killing me.

She had taken too long to respond, so I knew that I was wrong and that it wasn't Wanda sitting there looking at me. The feeling of rejection and hurt in the pit of my stomach felt absolutely horrible and I almost wanted to vomit, but managed to hold it in as I dropped my head and let the tears fall down into my lap.

"Hey," she said softly and it hurt me a little more with how nice she was being as she let me down.

"Ian, look at me," she instructed and I was helpless to her; I reluctantly looked up to see that she had moved and was sitting cross legged facing me.

"It's me, I'm here," she whispered, letting her eyes dropped to the floor and my heart leapt up in my chest, beating hard again.

"Wanda?" I asked again, my excitement growing at finally realizing the truth.

She simply nodded, looking a little glum and I wanted nothing more than to wipe that off of her face. Before I could help myself, i practically launched myself off of the wall and the hard floor and made my way over to Wanda. She began to lift her head up, probably to see what I was doing, but before she got it all the way up I had reached her and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her small body into my lap.

Everything felt the same as before; my skin still lit on fire when I touched her and I was eternally grateful that she didn't even try and fight me back after I'd pulled her to me. It made me a bit worried though, and I wondered if she was just going along with it because she thought that she had to.

I pushed her back from me a little bit so that I could see her face and make sure that she was all right. I looked down at her and saw the top of her golden head and lifted a finger under her chin to tilt her head up. I gently coaxed her head up so that I was looking at her face, but I noticed that her eyes were still downcast.

"Hey, look up at me," I whispered down at her, wanting to see her silver eyes and know that it was all okay. She started to shake her head and tried to get her head away from my finger, but I gripped her chin with my thumb as well, holding it gently in place.

"Wanda please," I pleaded with her and she gently nodded her head before finally looking up at me.

I saw the doubt and the pain that was evident behind those silver eyes, but I also knew that it could be fixed; everything in the world could be fixed now that I had my Wanda back with me. I leaned my head towards her and rested my forehead against hers, noticing that she looked down at my lips and back before blushing.

"_Same old Wanda,"_ I thought to myself, internally wondering why I didn't act on my gut instinct sooner; we could have been back together and happy for a long time if I had just swallowed my pride and taken a chance.

That was what life was all about, I realized; taking that chance. The one that may seem scary at first, but has amazing benefits in the end. I realized that Wanda was like my prize because I'd acted on my feelings in the first place. Yes, I had screwed up, but I had gotten her back in the end and there wasn't anything that I wanted more in this world as long as I could have her by my side for the rest of our lives together.

"Ian," she murmured, cupping my cheek with one of her small hands. I took my hand off of her chin and wrapped it back around her, pulling her closer to me once again.

Wanda shifted her weight on me for a moment and I realized that she was sitting on my legs and they were falling asleep. I ignored the feeling, or lack of, in them and focused on Wanda and the fact that she was there was with me, not screaming and running from the room. I supposed that there was still time for her to do that, but so far, so good.

As I pulled her closer to me, never wanting to let her go ever again. I was feeling very possessive and knew that it was wrong, but I couldn't help it.

Wanda looked at my lips again and moved a tiny bit closer to me. I looked down to shift my legs from under her, and missed the small movement that she made which brought our lips together.

At first I was stunned and didn't respond, as I really wasn't expecting her to make a move like that, so I was kind of frozen in place. I heard her take in a sharp breath of air and then start moving her lips away from mine, probably thinking that I didn't want that, so I made my move before she could get too far from me.

I leaned forwards and captured her lips with mine, wanting to stake them as mine and never let them get away from me. She jumped a little, probably not anticipating me to kiss her back, but I felt her body melt into mine as I ran my hands up and down her back to soothe her before cupping her cheek with my right hand. Wanda moaned into my mouth and I kissed her harder, not being able to help myself.

Wanda eventually pulled away from me, gasping for air but I wasn't ready to let her go and stop just yet. Instead, I settled for kissing everything else; her forehead, cheeks, nose, eyelids, hair and her lips again while her fingers ran through my hair, curling at the base of my neck. I buried my face in her neck, coming into direct contact with her golden hair and inhaled, smelling her distinct smell and vowing never to be apart from her for longer than necessary.

I couldn't live without her; that much was made obvious to everyone, including myself now that I looked back upon that time away as just a little bump in the road, something that we could get past and move on from. I desperately wanted to profess my love to her, but I didn't know how well she would take it, especially since I hadn't exactly made it clear that I wanted her with me; but I hoped that from my actions she was able to guess that much.

I held her tight to me, trying not to break her delicate body, but also loving the feeling of having her back in my arms.

**Mel POV**

I had just sat down in a seat beside Jared with my plate of food in front of me when Jeb casually walked past the table, eyeing everyone around it for whatever reason. I shrugged it off and just assumed that it was another weird thing about Uncle Jeb as he sat down at a table a little ways away from ours.

"Did you notice Jeb just now?" Jared whispered into my ear and I nodded, taking a mouthful of food.

"What do you think it was about?" he asked and I turned to him, rolling my eyes and pointing at my mouth. Talking with your mouth full was just gross; nobody liked see-food. After I swallowed, I finally answered him.

"I have no idea, it's Jeb," I said, scooping up another forkful of rice.

"He's been acting really funny all day," Kyle pointed out from his spot against the wall with Sunny.

"When isn't he?" I grumbled before eating the rice and Jared snorted.

"I wonder how Wanda made out today on her day off," Sunny noted, pushing some of the food around on her plate. "It's odd that she's not here for dinner; she was determined not to hide away and miss a meal with everyone even if she didn't want to eat."

"She was with Jeb when they came to get Ian," Kyle said and my eyes snapped up to him.

"What?" I asked, fearing that they had been subjected to one of my Uncles' stupid schemes.

"Yeah they kind of marched over and took Ian away claiming that he had a job for them to do together," Jared added and I groaned, starting to eat faster.

"Slow down Mel, before you choke," he told me but I shook my head. "Seriously."

"I need to go and make sure that he didn't kill her or something," I said between mouthfuls as I was nearly done.

"Who Ian?" Sunny asked and I nodded.

"We should all go, just in case then," Kyle noted, pushing his empty plate away.

I finished in record time and Sunny had taken our plates to the back, but Jared made me stay and chew my food properly. I felt like a little kid again as I sat there deliberately chewing while giving him the stink eye and he just smirked at me. I wanted to stick my tongue out, but I knew that it would only get rice everywhere so I refrained from doing so. I was nearly done when Jeb approached our table again.

"Have any of you seen Ian and Wanda?" he asked and we all shook our heads as Sunny returned just then.

"They were supposed to report back to me before dinner I would have thought, but I haven't seen either of them," he said, shrugging his shoulders and walking away.

I quickly swallowed and opened my mouth to show Jared and it was empty before leaping up and jogging out of the kitchen. If Jeb hadn't seen them either, then I was really worried; especially since he was the one who gave them the job to do. Knowing him though he left them alone somewhere.

"Mel, slow down," Jared called out from behind me and I did a little bit, just enough so they could catch up and for Jared to take my hand before we all moved on.

"Where could they be?" I asked myself and Kyle answered.

"Let's check Ian's room first; we'll be able to get an idea from there," he suggested and I nodded, practically dragging Jared off in that direction.

To no one's surprise we were the first ones there and I saw that the door was open, not taking that as a great sign. I let go of Jared's hand and stepped inside, quickly looking around and not seeing anyone in there.

"They're not there!" I was beginning to get a little panicked at that point and scrounged my mind for another place that they could be.

"Yes they are," Jared said and I whirled around to see as I could hear Kyle and Sunny coming closer.

"Where?" I demanded and he pointed to the floor directly to the left of the door smiling.

I tentatively stepped inside and smiled at what he was seeing too. Wanda and Ian were sleeping curled up on a small patch of floor that had been cleared of clothes and belongings; just big enough for them to lie comfortably. He was flat on his back and Wanda's head was resting in the middle of his chest and they were both gripping onto each other quite tightly as if neither one of them wanted to let the other one go.

Sunny and Kyle stepped into the room then and I heard her sigh as they probably caught sight of the pair of them on the floor. I walked over to Ian's bed and pulled off the blankets that were all twisted up and started to drag them over to Ian and Wanda. Kyle must have sensed what I was going to do for he stepped up and helped me to drape them over top of the couple on the floor before we all backed out of the room.

Kyle put the red door back in place and I breathed a very audible sigh of relief.

``They seemed okay,`` Kyle said and I nodded my head. I was glad that neither one of them were dead, and that they actually seemed quite content in each others' arms.

''I hope that they``ll be okay,'' I said and everyone nodded.

``I`m sure that they will be,`` Jared said, hugging me from behind as we all walked off down the hallway.

**AN: 7, 752 words : )**

**I know that it`s a day late, but my final assignment of the semester took precedence over it, unfortunately.  
Fortunately, I only have two exams and then I`m done for winter break, so I`m going to be pumping out chapters in my spare time!!**

**Oh, and I`m away next weekend at a synchronized skating competition, so I`ll either update on Friday before I leave or really late Sunday night.**

**Review : )**


	34. Making Amends

**Woohoo chapter 33! I'm really glad that you all like Ian and Wanda's little impromptu reunion and get together last chapter; this one has more fluff in it that the last dozen or so have had. Enjoy!**

**Thanks so much to hanaharoo, WhiteCamellia, RawSugarX23, sharshar85, CaptureTheDream, islandofdreams, brokenfromthepast, TK-MR, PrincessSxySwan, iamnicolecullen, winky23, Separate Entity, xxMarzbbyxx and mediate89 for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

I woke up the next morning, but kept my eyes closed because I was afraid that everything that had happened the day before was a dream; and it was one that I wasn't ready to wake up from just yet. I stretched my arms over my head and they hit the pillow that my head was lying on.

_"Pillow?"_ I thought to myself, reaching up and touching it again. I was sure that I had fallen asleep on the floor with Ian, not in a bed and I didn't know how I'd gotten there.

I decided to actually open my eyes then and look at where I was lying; hoping that it wasn't back in Doc's room; I never wanted to go back there unless I absolutely had to. As soon as I spotted the familiar cracks in the ceiling I immediately knew where I was, so I looked around for Ian. I sat up and realized that he wasn't in his room at all; I was totally by myself.

I was a little disappointed that he had clearly left, and I wondered if he had realized his mistake and had already left me again. I didn't want to linger in his room and bed any longer when he wasn't there to explicitly invite me inside; it was something that I knew that we'd have to work up to once again.

I threw back the covers that had been placed over top of me and stood up, stretching up again before looking for the shoes that I had been wearing the day before. As I looked around, I kind of felt like one of those girls that I had heard about men using for their own benefit before their planet was taken over; the ones that would stay overnight and have to leave the next day. I couldn't remember what they were called, but I did know what they did and I hated the feeling.

Once I located it, I shoved them on my feet and left the room, sliding the door back in place, as it was open for me to walk through. I looked around and didn't see anyone around, so I walked out towards the fork in the caves, wrapping my arms around myself.

I had thought that the day before Ian and I had made major progress, but looking back at what had all been said and done, we didn't get that far. He'd only really established that I was Wanda and that was it; nothing was said about what would happen now; and if the fact that he was gone before I'd even woken up was any indication, I wasn't sure how we were going to move forward.

I wanted to; everyone around me knew that I wanted to move on and be with him I just didn't want to push him in case he regretted anything. Last night he had cried a lot and I felt bad for him, but I thought that he needed to get that out of his system, especially if he knew that it really was me now. He had to have been feeling a lot of emotions about everything.

And that kiss; the kiss that we had shared was really something special for us, at least that was what I made it out to be. It was a mix of an accident and instinct that had propelled me to kiss him in the first place; he had been moving around a little bit and I had lifted my head to look at him; our lips at the same level and I just ended up pressing mine to his. At first I thought that he was going to push me away or something and I was really scared.

But then he had kissed me back, and my heart had soared, and it was not just because he was touching me; I really felt that with that little connection of ours that we would be all right and that everything would work itself out.

I smiled to myself and touched my lips remembering it, still being able to feel the tingles in them and loving the feeling. But I would never be able to feel that unless we really figured it out, and I really wanted to. I never wanted to leave Ian; or be away from him for that matter, again.

I knew that we had spoken a lot and talked about what had gone on with my while I was away, and also what he had been thinking, but we had never talked about the future and what that held for us. It was the worst feeling waking up without him that morning, when I had known that I had fallen asleep with him because it felt a little like he had abandoned me.

I passed through the main field and offered a small smile at Andy and Brandt, and they nodded in my direction; which was a definite improvement from the glares that I used to get from them. It was actually a bit unnerving, because I figured that they would be out to get me once I returned, since they never really accepted me before. I shook my head a little bit and continued on, not really running into anyone the rest of the way to Doc's room.

Once I got there, I just went straight to my things and began pulling out clothes to change into, without looking around the room. I was so focussed on my thoughts and doing what I was doing that I didn't even notice that Doc was in the room with me until he spoke.

"Long night, Wanda," he said and I jumped really high, not expecting it. I clapped a hand over my chest before turning to see him.

"You scared me," I said, trying to get my heart back to normal and he chuckled.

"Sorry about that," he apologized with a smile.

"It's all right," I told him, digging out a clean shirt from my bag.

"So I noticed that you didn't sleep here last night; I came in early all quiet so that I didn't wake you and you weren't even here," he pointed out again and I nodded.

"Yeah, I was... out," I replied, not really up to a full blown conversation with him at the moment, but it seemed as though Doc had other plans.

"With who?" I rolled my eyes. He was really being nosy and very unlike him.

"With Ian, if you must know," I told him, turning around with my clothes in hand. "But nothing happened. We talked, and then we fell asleep, that's it."

"I didn't figure that anything really happened," he said, leaning back in his chair with a twinkle in his eye. "Ian didn't come down here to get supplies; I checked our stock this morning."

I blushed a really deep shade of red at what he was implying that Ian might need for us to stay in the same room overnight; I couldn't help it. I shook my head while Doc simply laughed; probably at the expression on my face before I turned to leave the room.

"You know that I'm just kidding with you, right?" he called out and I nodded.

"I know Doc."

"Oh, and Wanda?" he said, and I looked over at him, still trying to inch my way out of the room.

"Yes?"

"Will I be expecting you back down here tonight?"

I hesitated before answering that question, as I really had no clue.

"I'm not sure. I think so."

Doc simply nodded and I took that as my cue to leave him alone and do my business. I made my way down to the bathing room, getting in the line behind Lucina. She didn't say anything to me, but just nodded her head and when it was time for her to go inside, she motioned for me to join her and I smiled in acceptance.

As I was washing my hair with the new shampoo that I had stolen from Cloud Spinner's house, I made the decision to go out and find Ian after I was done in order to discuss us and what was going to happen next. I didn't want this to carry on like I knew that it potentially could; I wanted to know before I got my hopes up and they were crushed or something. I couldn't deal with that again.

**Ian POV**

There was a band of light across my eyes; I could see it even with my eyes closed as everything was red. I shifted my head around, but it didn't seem to matter what I did, I couldn't get out of that spot. I tried rolling over, but my arm came into contact with something solid and my eyes flew open to inspect whatever it was.

I smiled to myself once I saw that it was just Wanda lying there still sleeping peacefully; I was glad that I hadn't waken her up when I had hit her. I found myself wide awake then and unable to close my eyes again even if I really truly wanted to. Instead I settled for watching her sleep.

It had been too long since I'd been able to lie there and just watch her and I found that I had missed it more than I thought that I would have. I felt that I was blessed because she was with me still and hadn't taken off in the middle of the night like she probably should have.

I had woken up earlier on because my back was killing me and I could sleep anymore, so I had picked her up and carried her over to the bed so that she could at least have been more comfortable. I was all set to take a blanket and curl up on the floor once again after I'd tucked her into my bed, but she grabbed my arm and garbled out something about me never leaving her again. I had smiled at that and crawled in beside her; unable to refuse any of Wanda's wishes.

After watching her for a few moments, I reach out and touched her cheek, unable to still really believe that she really was back with me. We still had to talk about where we were going with this, but if I had it my way she would never go anywhere without me ever again. But then again, if she wanted space and to stay away from me for awhile, I would let her, no matter how much it hurt me.

My finger left her cheek and she rolled over, her golden hair falling to the side and exposing the back of her neck and the scar on it. My eyes lingered on the tiny imperfection in her skin and smiled at it; without that scar, my Wanda would not be in front of me. I ran my index finger around the outside of the line, and then over top of it.

When I did that, Wanda sighed and seemed to melt into the pillow below her. I knew that whenever I touched that spot it relaxed her, but I didn't realize that it had the same effect on her when she was sleeping as well. I had a thing for that spot, because that was the closest that I could get to touching her real self, and not just the body that she was placed into; and knowing that she was just under the skin there meant more to me than anything else.

I lay back on my back then and looked up at the ceiling for the offending spot that was letting in all the light before. I found it and made a mental note to write it down on the list for Jeb.

"Crap," I said to myself, sitting straight up and looking around for that piece of paper. Jeb probably expected it last night and we hadn't taken it to him.

Very reluctantly, I pushed back the covers before standing up and stretching, pulling on a random blue t-shirt at the same time. I walked around the other side of the bed and tucked Wanda back in, kissing her forehead. I didn't want to leave her, but I also did not want to keep Jeb waiting, as he'd probably find some sort of unpleasant job for keeping him.

I grabbed the paper and shoved it in my back pocket before leaving the room and jogging down to Jeb's room. With any luck, I would be able to catch him there and jump back in bed with Wanda quickly.

I pushed back the rug that he used as a door and found an empty room; of course he was up and ready, he didn't like to miss any bit of daylight. I decided to check the next likely place to find him that early in the morning; the kitchen.

As I was walking back out towards the entrance to all the rooms, I bumped right into Kyle and reached out to the wall in front of me to steady myself.

"Watch where you're going," he said to me and I rolled my eyes.

"You're the one who didn't look before waltzing right out of your room," I pointed out and he huffed, stretching his arms in front of him.

"Yeah, well it shouldn't be like merging onto the highway just to get out of your room so early in the morning," he commented and I smiled.

"Was that a smile I saw on your face?" he asked, his face mocking shock.

"Yeah yeah, shut up," I told him, punching his shoulder and walked away from him.

"Well shit. What happened to you to make you smile like that?" he caught up with me and I internally groaned because I knew that he wouldn't leave me alone.

"Did you sleep with her?" he asked and I stopped in my tracks to look at him seriously.

"No."

"Hm, okay, not that," he thought out loud, following me again.

"Don't you have something better to do?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Nope, I was just on my way to get breakfast. I was actually hoping to run into you to ask if you and Wanda had at least gotten on the same page last night. I mean, you fell asleep together and stuff and..."

"How do you know that?" I interrupted as we walked through the deserted main cavern.

"Because Melanie had a little freak out last night when neither of you showed up for dinner and she was convinced that you had killed Wanda or something, so she dragged us all out to find you guys," he explained and I shook my head.

"She has no faith in me, does she?" I asked and he laughed.

"Not at all, little brother," he clapped a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off. "Anyways, she took us to your room and we saw you guys all cuddled up on the floor. So?"

"We talked and established that it's Wanda."

"I could have told you that. In fact... no wait, I did tell you that," he said while tapping his chin to make it look like he was actually thinking about it.

"Yeah well I just had to figure it out for myself," I said. "You guys could have told me that until your faces turned blue, but I had to believe it before I could act on it."

"So now what are you going to do?" he asked and I shrugged.

"Talk I guess. No idea," I admitted as we passed through the door of the kitchen.

"Where is she now?"

"Still sleeping."

"Well that's perfect!" he said as I looked around for Jeb, spotting him in a seat near the back. "You can bring her breakfast in bed."

"Yeah, I could," I mused, nodding my head.

"I'm full of awesome ideas, you know. If you'd have only listened to me before, you could have been engaged," he whispered and I glared at him.

"Okay okay back off, I get it," he replied, holding his hands out. "I'm just saying."

He quickly ran off before I could beat him up; I didn't need another reminder of what I had lost by messing up this whole situation. But as he walked away my stomach plummeted into my shoes; I had just thrown the ring box the first time that I had gone back into my room and then had it in front of me when I was looking at the picture, but hadn't seen it since; what if Wanda found it?

I quickly beetled my way over to Jeb and thrust the list in his direction and he smirked.

"What?" I asked, a little short because I had to get back to my room and find it before Wanda woke up.

"Took you long enough, is all," he commented and held back a laugh.

"Yeah well, we fell asleep," I answered and he nodded. "And I don't have a pen on me, but you can add one more in my room to the list as well."

"Okay," he said simply, unfolding the paper and spreading it out on the table to look at. I waited around for a minute to see if he was going to say something, but left when it became clear that he was done with me.

I walked to the back and grabbed a tray, putting two rolls on it and waiting for Trudy to finish up Kyle's food, shaking my leg because I was so nervous. Kyle eventually moved on, but not before smirking at me, and I placed my order with Trudy; she was making pancakes, but in my terror at Wanda finding the ring, I couldn't bring myself to be as excited as I usually was when we had pancakes.

As she was making them, I ran and grabbed two cups of water for us; they had run out of the juice already since there were little ways to keep it cool, and practically ran back over to my tray. Trudy was just finishing putting them on our plates and I smiled at her gratefully before taking it and rushed out of the room; I wanted to get back without them getting cold.

I raced through the caves and a few people say hi to me, but I didn't really see who they were; I was so focussed on that single thing that it was almost like I had a one track mind, and tunnel vision only allowing me to see directly in front of me.

I reached the room and saw that the door was still closed, and I breathed a sigh of relief; for some reason I saw the fact that the door was in place and that it meant she was still inside. I placed the tray carefully on the floor and slid the door out of the way, snatching it back up again before stepping in the room. I looked around and saw that she wasn't there and I felt almost defeated. Wanda had evidently taken off for whatever reason and I really wished that she hadn't; I really wanted to surprise her.

I put it down on the end of the bed, feeling significantly depressed and began searching all over for the ring box; flinging clothes around in my haste as I really hoped that she didn't discover it. To my immense relief, I found it near the side of the bed that she had been sleeping on and I scooped it up, opening the lid to see that it was still safely nestled in the silk just like I had left it. I closed my eyes and was very thankful that it was all right; if anything had happened to the ring itself, I never could have forgiven myself, and I was sure that Kyle would not be very happy about it either.

I sat back on the floor, holding it in my hand before stuffing the box back in my pocket and I could immediately feel the weight in it; it was comforting though. I knew that this time I would do it; I would find some really special moment for us and ask her; once I knew where we stood, that was. The fact that Jared and Mel were engaged also put a bit of a damper on my plans as well; I didn't want it to seem like I was just asking Wanda because Jared did or just because we had gotten back together, I needed her to understand that this was something that I had wanted to do for a long time.

I would have to plan that out very well, because I was sure that Melanie would not be afraid at all to plant those thoughts in Wanda's head and there was no telling whether she would listen to that or not.

"Ian?" I heard Wanda's soft voice call out from behind me and I turned around to see her standing awkwardly by the door with her arms wrapped around her middle.

"Hey Wanda, what's up?" I asked, standing up and starting to walk towards her.

"Um, not much. I just... can we talk?" she asked, looking sort of like she was afraid of my answer.

"Yeah, of course we can," I said with a smile on my face to try and make her more comfortable and she returned a small one of her own.

"I actually brought breakfast for us, do you want to join me?"

She nodded her head and stepped forward into the room. I took her plate off of the tray and placed it on the bed before taking my own and leaning back against the wall behind the bed to prop myself up. Wanda stood where she was until I motioned for her to sit down with me and she walked over, gingerly sitting on the bed. I waited until we had taken a few bites before speaking to her again.

"Is it okay?" I asked lamely, knowing full well that she would like it; I knew what she would eat, but it was my pathetic attempt at trying to talk to her.

"It's fine, Ian," she said, taking a small sip of her water before we fell back into a stiff silence. I really didn't like that she clearly wasn't able to be herself around me, and I wanted to remedy that.

"I—"

"We—"

We both started talking at the same time and I smiled before nodding at her to go first. She looked at me almost questioningly and I smiled before nodding again and Wanda took a deep breath of air.

"We were going to talk, right?" she asked and I nodded. "Can I start?"

"Sure you can," I said, leaning my head right back on the rocky wall.

"We fell asleep on the floor, I know that we did. How did I get to the bed?" she asked, looking down at the covers and touching them softly.

"I woke up in the middle of the night and moved you over there," I said simply, not wanting to tell her more because I knew that she would get a little embarrassed about what she had said.

"But why?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, not entirely following.

"Why would you move me over there too; it's your bed. I would have been fine on the floor," she clarified and I was shaking my head before she had even finished.

"I would never leave you there by yourself and you know that," I told her and she shrugged. "Don't even try to deny it Wanda, you know that's not like me at all."

"Yeah but I just figured that since we were like, you know, whatever, that it makes more sense for you to sleep up there; it's your room."

"Wanda...I. I don't want us to be like this," I said, wishing for a better lead in, but I would work with is.

"Like what?" she asked, finally looking up so that I could see her face.

"Like how we are now. I can tell that you're uncomfortable being here and I don't like that. I just wanted to say that..."

"Why did you leave me alone this morning?" she interrupted and I was caught off guard; I was not expecting that at all.

"I... I didn't just leave you; I expected to be back before you had woken up with breakfast. I had to take that list to Jeb and was going to surprise you," I explained and I saw her cheeks start to turn a little red.

"Oh," she said simply and I smiled. "I thought that you had left me."

"I gathered that. Why would you think that I would?" I asked, biting the inside of my lip and dreading her answer, fearing it had something to do with our lack of relationship.

"Well, I just thought that you didn't want me anymore and that you just left so that you didn't have to see me, or something like that," she mumbled and I closed my eyes, not believing that she could truly think that. "I thought that you knew how much of a mistake that you had made in letting me back in that you couldn't take it anymore and..."

"Never," I interrupted her that time and she looked up at me in shock; I usually let her always finish before speaking. "I would never leave you like that. Honestly if I had thought that you would have woken up I would have left a note. Wanda, you know me better than you think you do, I never would have just abandoned you.

"I guess I realize that now and it was stupid of me to think that, but at the time that's what I really thought. I mean, we never really discussed what was to happen now, so I figured that you were just getting out while you could."

I was silent for a second as her words sunk in and I allowed them to hurt me a little bit; I deserved it for leaving her alone and making her think like that. I then put my plate back on the tray as I had finished and I noticed that her food was basically untouched. I felt a bit like a pig for practically devouring my food; but it didn't matter, she wouldn't care much.

"Wanda, come here," I beckoned her over and she looked at me hesitantly before I patted the bed beside me and she got up to walk over, sitting cross-legged on the bed with our legs almost touching.

"I know that you thought that I would leave like that this morning, and that is probably because of the mixed signals I've been sending your way since you got back and I can't say how sorry I am because of that,"

"Honestly, once you explained your story on that first day I think that a part of me really and truly believed you then, I just don't think that I was ready to admit it; I needed time. But I certainly didn't need that much time, about a week later I knew that I was ready to talk to you, but I decided that you needed your space away from me as well; that it wasn't just about me here,"

"So I gave you more time and then I guess Jeb decided that enough was enough and made us work together, and I'm kind of glad that he did; since I really didn't have the balls to. But even after everything last night, I shouldn't have let us fall asleep without talking about what's going to happen now; I feel bad about it now."

"Ian," I held up a hand to her, I had to finish or I'd never get it out.

"I want to know where you want us to go from here. If you want us to go back to where we were, then we can do that. If you need a break from me for however long, I can give you that; if you just want to be friends, I'm willing to try, just please tell me what you want to do," I pleaded with her, giving Wanda the option of what to do instead of having me dictate what was going to happen next.

Wanda started chewing on her lip while she thought it over and it just about killed me with want to know what was going on inside her head.

"You know that we could never truly go back to the way that we were before," she whispered and my heart sank; she didn't want to be with me anymore, I was sure that she was going to tell me that.

"I think that I've hurt you too much for us to go back to that, but," she trailed off as I held on to every word that she was speaking. "A part of me needs to stay away from you for a little while and give us each some space, I think that would be good for us to at least get on the same page before having some space, but..."

She was killing me; I just wanted an answer and she was skirting around it.

"It's okay Wanda, I understand that you don't want to..." Wanda pressed her index finger on my lips and I stopped speaking at once, nodding my head.

"I don't want to have to make this decision by myself though," she said, sitting back and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "It concerns you as well. I don't want us to be miserable because of one person's decision; we need to do it together."

"You're right," I responded, nodding my head. "So what are your thoughts on this?"

"Well, I. This is too hard. I don't want to have to choose between having you and having nothing, Ian. You know that I can't live without you; this last month and a bit was the hardest time of my life, and I can't do it again. If we decide to be apart, it will be hard on me," she told me honestly and it took everything out of me to not wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly to me.

"It will be hard of me too," I told her. "I can't stay away from you, but I can understand that we can't go back to exactly the way we were before. _If_ we decided to give this another shot, I know that we would have to work up to that and that it might be a little awkward because of everything that has happened to us. But I can't stay away from you, Wanderer."

I reached out and touched her right leg as it was closest to me and she looked down at where our skin made contact. I could see Wanda nodding her head, but I wasn't exactly sure what that meant exactly.

"Okay," she finally whispered, lifting her head to look at me.

"Okay to what?" I asked, really hoping that she was talking about what I thought that she was.

"I would like to give us another shot," Wanda said with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"I would too," I smiled at her and felt her hand touch mine. Without hesitating for a minute, I grabbed her hand with mine and laced our fingers together on her leg. I saw her actually smile and I nodded my head; we were actually going to do this.

"Okay, you need to eat now," I said to her, reaching across the bed to pull her plate closer to her.

"I'm okay, really," she tried to protest, but I rolled my eyes and cut a piece of her pancake with the fork, stabbing it and handing it to her.

"Ian, really," she giggled and I shook my head and held it up to her mouth. Wanda rolled her eyes before opening her mouth for me to feed her.

"You don't have to," she really protested and took the fork from my hand.

"So are we okay?" I asked her and she nodded, cutting off another piece of food.

"Yeah. I mean, as okay as we're going to get for now," Wanda said and I nodded, agreeing with that.

"Very true."

We sat in silence holding hands while she ate and I just simply watched her, loving the fuzzy feeling that I was having inside at the fact that we had agreed to give us another try. It felt like it was too good to be true and I secretly never wanted it to go away.

"I have something to say about last night too," Wanda said after finishing her last bite. "You can have the rest if you want it, you know," she nodded to her unfinished portion, but I shook my head.

"What about last night?" I asked, almost dreading that she was going to have second thoughts about this, which was wrong of me because I needed to trust her again.

"Well, I'm sorry that I kissed you like that," Wanda apologized, looking down and blushing a lot. I reached out and touched her red cheek, cupping it in my hand and lifting her face back up.

"If I remember correctly, I am the one who practically attacked you," I said teasingly, but it only caused her to blush an even deeper shade of red.

"Yeah, but I was the one who initially started it, so I'm sorry."

"Hey, listen. I don't ever want to hear you apologize for kissing me, okay?" she nodded in compliance and I smiled. "Plus, if anyone should be apologizing it should be me for doing that. It probably gave you a lot of different signals, didn't it?"

Wanda shrugged, but nodded a little bit too.

"Just so you know, you don't have to apologize either," she said, shocking me a little bit with her boldness, but I couldn't help but to smile at that either.

"So you wouldn't say no if I kissed you right now?" I asked her, joking a little but still serious at the same time. Wanda played into it a little by pretending to think of the answer as well before rolling her eyes and shrugging.

"No, I wouldn't."

"Good," I whispered, moving her plate aside and gently pulling her face closer as she got up on her knees and moved in my direction. "But I also don't want you to feel obliged to say yes, you know."

"I know," Wanda murmured and I saw her look down at my lips as we moved closer. "I want you to kiss me."

As soon as she uttered those words, I closed the distance between us, watching as her eyelids fluttered closed, and pressed my lips to hers.

**Wanda POV**

As Ian got closer to me, I couldn't help but to smile before his lips descended on mine. At first they were still but then I began to move my lips on his and he followed suit. I then realized that he was going to let me take the lead with this. I rolled my eyes, but then decided to be a little daring as I was sure that he wouldn't have been expecting that.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and tangled them in the mass of dark hair at the base of his neck, feeling the scar that Doc had made on there to disguise him when we were out on raids. I traced it a few times before bringing that hand to the top of his hair and grabbing a handful of it there.

I heard Ian groan into my mouth and I instinctively opened up my mouth to him; he wasted no time at all slipping his tongue inside my mouth and I really got to taste him. Nothing about Ian had changed much, other than the fact that he was clearly broken a lot in the time that I was gone, but that was nothing that couldn't be changed with time.

We couldn't be the exact same as we were before everything that had happened, as that was basically impossible, but we could improve upon what we had now. It would take some time for him to regain full trust in me once again, but I was willing to go as slow as he wanted; just as he was willing to let me make the full decision about our relationship. I was so glad that we had decided to be together though; it would have killed me to just be friends with him and not be able to touch him like I wanted to; like now.

I sat up on my knees and slowly moved my way over to Ian, sitting up just a little bit higher than he was, holding his face with both of my hands. Ian had wrapped both of his arms around my middle before, and I felt one of them wrapped up in my hair. I kept moving towards him until I was practically sitting in his lap, but it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

In a bold movement on my behalf, I brought my hands down to his chest and pushed back on him a little. Ian got the hint of course, removing his lips from mine before lying down on his back while I shimmied on top of him and straddled his waist.

"Wanda," Ian breathed out and I smiled before capturing his lips with mine once again and kissing him forcefully.

I could feel Ian's hands tracing my skin up my back and under my shirt, leaving trails of fire wherever they went and it felt so good to me that I didn't want him to stop. I broke away from Ian to sit up on him and took my shirt off in one swift movement, throwing it away and let it land wherever it pleased.

"You're so beautiful," he practically panted, but I shook my head.

"No, Pet's body is beautiful."

"You are wrong," Ian said to me, putting his hands on either side of my waist. "_You_ Wanderer are beautiful."

I hesitated with everything for a second and smiled at his words, but after a moment he started moving and somehow managed to flip me over and onto my back. I moved up so that our faces would be at the same level, tugging on the hem of Ian's shirt at the same time.

"You want me to take off my shirt?" he asked, smirking playfully.

"It would only be fair," I commented and he laughed before tugging it off and tossing it away.

"Is that better?"

"Much," I replied, touching my fingers to his abs. Ian used to complain about not being as built as he would have like to have been, but I had to disagree with him then as I traced over his muscles; I liked it.

"Good," he muttered before pressing his lips back to mine again, his tongue tracing its way over my bottom lip.

I let my hands roam freely over Ian's upper body, memorizing it again as it had been too long since I had seen it while he caged me underneath of him. I felt Ian's lower body press into my leg and I moaned at the contact, as I could feel _him_ pressing directly into me. Acting on instinct, since I still had no clue what to do in that department, I let my hands dance lower on his stomach, feeling the muscles contract until they came into contact with his waistband. I then felt one of his hands on mine as he tore his lips from mine, pressing wet kisses to my neck and collarbone instead.

"Not now Wanda."

"Why not?" I whispered and Ian brought his face up to mine again.

"Because I don't want us to do something right now; I want to work up to that again," he explained, kissing my nose.

"What if we don't? What if this is our only chance?" I asked, kind of caught up in the moment.

"Trust me, Wanda, we'll have other chances," Ian said, kissing both of my cheeks, my eyelids and then my forehead. "Trust me."

"I do trust you," I told him and he finally recaptured my lips in his.

"Good."

After what seemed like such a short time, I was once again left gasping for air, although I couldn't complain because that was the kind of reunion that I was really looking for. Although for a moment there I had wanted to take it faster, I was kind of glad that Ian put a stop to it; I really wasn't ready and he was right, there would be other chances for that.

Ian eventually sat up again and leaned against the rocky wall, as I sat up beside him. It seemed as though Ian couldn't keep his hands to himself any more, for as soon as I was upright again he had wrapped his arms around me and pulled my body onto his lap.

"Ian you don't have to. I'm too heavy," I complained, but Ian clamped a hand down over my mouth to stop me.

"You are not, quit trying to stop me from holding you," Ian said and I licked his hand. "That's not going to work either."

I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him, leaning my head back on his shoulder to plead with him using my eyes. Ian looked down at me and kissed my forehead before removing his hand.

"You know that I can't resist you," he teased before kissing my nose again. "And don't you ever pull that weight thing with me again; you came back here entirely too skinny and I didn't like it one bit. It doesn't look like you've gained too much either."

"Yeah, well I did lose a considerable amount of weight," I said, leaving my head lying on his shoulder, but looked away instead.

"Why? Did Cloud Spinner not feed you or something?" Ian asked, lacing our fingers together once again and I smiled at the small gesture; it felt so right and so natural and I had craved it for so long that I loved it.

"No, she fed me, I just didn't eat much of it," I admitted and I could tell that Ian was frowning.

"Why?"

"Well, that's a long story," I sighed, brushing my hair out of my eyes with my free hand.

"We've got all day, Wanda. I don't intend to go anywhere, do you?" Ian asked and I shook my head. "Good. Then you can tell me all about that long story of yours," he said, kissing the top of my head and I smiled. This was where I truly belonged.

**A/N: I'm not too sure where I want to end this story now. I either have the option of ending it in the next chapter or two and starting a sequel (if you guys would read it) or just continuing on. I'm kind of feeling an end, but not sure what to do!**

**Sorry it's a day late; we got back really late last night from the competition and I was tired and didn't feel like booting up my computer to update. **

**Review : ) And let me know what you think about this!**


	35. Perfect Situation?

**Hope everyone had a very merry holiday and has a safe and happy New Year!**

**Thanks to Separate Entity, PrincessSxySwan, RawSugarX23, hanaharoo, mizDevine, TeamIanandEdward, xxMarzbbyxx, AzraCullen, iamnicolecullen, 123xyz, ivamp3, brokenfromthepast, HockeeChica, kimmitwilight, islandofdreams, mediate89, ollyrin, TK-MR, anoek013, HerGoldenWings and TwiTwanger for your awesome reviews! I can't believe that we've reached 600! (See the note on the bottom for what I'm going to do with this story)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Ian POV**

I held Wanda in my arms and listened to the entire story of her stay with Cloud Spinner back in the real world, and really felt a lot of guilt for her. She had been through so much out there and I had only made it worse by basically shunning Wanda when she finally made it back to us. I knew that I needed to really make it up to her then, but again, it would take some time. She started talking about how she decided to basically starve herself in order to get the metal cuff off and my arms instinctively tightened around her.

"There had to have been other ways," I murmured in her hair, kissing her head gently as it shook back and forth beneath my lips.

"Ian, I honestly tried everything that I could think of," she whispered gently and I sighed. "I was really thankful that Jared, Mel and Jamie came along because they had fresh and new ideas for me."

"I wish that I had gone with them," I mused out loud.

"So why didn't you?" Wanda asked, turning in my arms but I turned my head away from her. I felt her small hand under my chin trying to bring it back around at once.

"Hey, don't hide from me," she instructed and I smiled a little, finally looking down at her.

"I didn't go because I was an idiot and let my emotions get the best of me then," I told her, pressing our foreheads together. "Instead of thinking rationally and going with them, I basically revolted and ran away. It was cowardly and stupid and I'm not proud of myself for that."

"Ian, it's okay," Wanda told me, touching the tip of her nose to mine. "I understand that. To be completely honest too, I don't think I would have been ready to see you on Cloud Spinner's doorstep like the rest of them."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Just because I was so worried about how you would react I have a feeling that I would have fallen apart if I didn't have any warning. But then at the same time, I was a bit disappointed when Mel told me how you were doing and that you didn't come," she explained. "I was a little conflicted at the time; still am, I suppose."

Before I could really stop myself, I leaned forwards a bit and pressed our lips together gently. I felt Wanda's lips curl up into a smile and I kissed her once more before pulling myself away and wrapping my right hand in her hair.

"Were you ready to see me when you came back here?" I asked, smiling at her gently.

"Yes," she answered honestly. "Mel and everyone had told me what was going on with you and I was kind of prepared because I knew that you would be mad and everything, so yeah."

"I still shouldn't have done that," I said to her but she shook her head.

"Don't. Let's not go back down there again. You had every right to, and we're leaving it at that," Wanda said with a slight glare on her face and I couldn't help but to chuckle at her.

"You shouldn't glare at people like that, Wanda," I told her, kissing her cheek. "It's not a very good look for you."

"Well then don't say stupid things like that," she counted and I laughed again.

"Okay, I won't," I said, knowing that I could never possibly live up to that, but I could try.

"Sure you won't," she said and I held in another laugh, not wanting to make her upset at me for constantly laughing at her. Wanda gave me a moment, allowing me to get myself under control before she spoke again.

"You done?" she asked and I nodded my head, placing my chin on the top of her head since she'd turned back around again.

"So how did you eventually get it off of your arm?" I asked, knowing that I knew the answer, but Wanda was giving more detailed explanations then and I wanted the whole story.

Wanda then launched into a whole story about how Jared had found some gloves and they had put her hand over a hot stove or something. When she explained that her glove was smoking and slightly caught on fire, I got really mad at Jared for letting that happen to her.

"Ian?" her voice brought me back to reality and I realized that I had zoned out and wasn't listening to her anymore.

"Hmm?" I hummed in response.

"Ian, you're hurting me," she said and I glanced down at her, realizing just how tight my arms were around her.

"Sorry Wanda," I apologized, loosening my grip significantly on her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she responded and I sighed.

"Why would you allow him to do that to you?" I asked and I knew she knew what I was talking about.

"Because it was the most logical thing to do; you know that," Wanda responded and I sighed. "It's the same as when Jared had to hit me and cut my face open and I sliced my hand and stuff when we were out getting medical supplies for Jamie; it had to be done."

"I'm sure that there could have been something else," I croaked, feeling queasy at the mention of when Jared practically smashed her face open. Even though she had been in Mel's body then, it still affected me because Wanda herself could have been damaged because of their foolishness.

"Melanie was really against it as well, just so you know," she said and I shook my head. "I'm not sure about Jamie, because he was quiet, but still."

"There could have been something else to get it off though, Wanda. I mean, your hand was on fire!" I was getting very worked up about this, and I knew that I shouldn't have been.

"Which hand was it?" I asked, letting go of her waist.

Wanda sighed before lifting up her right hand to me. I grabbed it and held it up so that I could look at it. Her hand looked normal for the most part and there wasn't any sort of disfiguration to it, so I was at least satisfied that she was all right. I gave it a kiss before linking my fingers through hers.

"Ian, my hand is fine. Mel shoved it under the cold water as soon as the cuff was off and everything; we took care of it," Wanda tried to reassure me and I nodded.

"I just don't like the idea of you being put in any sort of danger, even if it was to get you out of there and everything," I told her, feeling slightly guilty for flipping out a little on her; she would have just gone along with whatever the best plan was at the time. I never wanted to let her go to be subjected to another of Jared's dumb plans for as long as I could help it.

"I know that Ian. I'm sorry," she apologized and I noticed the slight drop in her voice.

"Hey, no. Don't be like that; I'm not mad at you or anything, I just wish that there had been some other way for you to get out of there that didn't involve nearly lighting your hand on fire," I told her, turning Wanda around in front of me so that I could look at her. Once she was facing me, I cupped both of my hands around her cheeks and smiled at her.

"It's okay, Wanda," I told her and she nodded her head. Since I was holding onto her face anyways, I couldn't help but to lean in and kiss her gently and delicately.

Wanda kissed me back, but then placed her hands on my chest and pushed on me. I tried to pull my lips from hers to stop us before we went too far, but Wanda just recaptured mine with hers again, shoving on my chest again. I relented and shifted us so that I could lie down on my back while Wanda crawled her way up so that she was lying on my chest. I knew that she could feel everything, but I couldn't seem to care at the moment. Wanda sighed and in the second that she pulled her lips back from mine I regained some sort of sense of what was going on and smiled at her.

"What?" she asked and I ran my thumb over her swollen lips.

"Nothing, I can't smile at you?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Of course you can, I just wondered why you stopped," she said, lying her head down on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head.

"Felt like it," I shrugged.

"No, you don't feel like you wanted to," she countered and I bit my lip trying to hold in my laughter until she realized what exactly what she had just said.

After another minute, she lifted her head up off of me and I looked down to see her mouth wide open with shock written all over her face. I couldn't hold it in any longer and I released my laughter, letting go of her body to cover my cheeks with my hands in a pathetic attempt to hold myself together. I felt Wanda shift around on top of me and looked up to see her straddling my chest, her entire face and neck a deep shade of red.

"I am so sorry," she began apologizing between my bouts of laughter. "I really didn't mean it that way and... Ian please, I'm sorry."

"Wanda, Wanda you have nothing to be sorry for!" I exclaimed while taking deep breaths in order to get myself back to normal. "It was the truth anyways."

"Ian don't make fun of me!" she said, placing her hands back on my chest. "Please?"

"I'm sorry!" I said, biting my lower lip. "But there was nothing for you to be embarrassed about, Wanda. I'm not embarrassed, and I'm the one that's feeling this," I explained, gently pushing my hips up towards her and I knew she could feel me pressing against her leg when she took in a sharp breath of air.

"Ian," she moaned. "Please don't. I still have something to tell you."

"All right," I replied, opening my arms up to her again and she sent me a questioning look, to which I chuckled at. "I'll be good, I'm done I promise."

Wanda smiled before lying back down on top of me and I wrapped her back up in my arms again, nuzzling my cheek into her hair.

"What did you want to tell me about?" I asked, rubbing my hand up her back to try and soothe her and stop her from blushing; I could practically feel the heat from her cheeks through my shirt still.

"Well, Cloud Spinner allowed me to go out to the park for like 45 minutes each day or something stupid like that; she kept a very tight leash on 'Pet' and everything, which I can understand, but still. So one day I was there and this little boy just like ran up to be and started talking to me and stuff,"

Wanda then told me all about her encounter with this child that she called Tyler as I held her gently to me, continuing to trail my hands over her back. As she told me about this child, I couldn't help but to think of the children that I had dreamed about before; and a part of me wanted it now more than ever, but I knew that the timing wasn't right.

"But do you know what affected me the most about all of that?" Wanda asked and I shook my head. "He was human."

Silence filled the room then as I processed that. It wasn't the first time that I'd heard of human children out in the world, but the fact that Wanda had actually interacted with one was what had stuck me the most. We had observed them, but always from far away and I found it very heart warming to know that Wanda had talked to the child.

"Are you sure?" I asked, even though I knew that she was.

"Yes. And he had a younger sister as well; she was still a baby and still human too," Wanda said and I could make out the faintest sound of longing in her voice.

"I... uh, I talked to their mother and she was very kind to me; she was a soul though," she continued, and I could hear her voice clouding over with emotion. "But I thought that the fact that she was willing to bring two human children into that world was remarkable and everything. A part of me wishes that I could have stayed a little longer just to talk to her about that and her decision to not give them up for insertion."

Almost immediately after she admitted that to me, a plan began to formulate in my mind, but I pushed it aside for later on. Instead, I thought about what she had said and sighed.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, really wanting to know at that point.

"Just about children and stuff," she replied before wiggling around until I let go of her and she rolled off of me, sitting on the bed. I sat up beside her and gave her a curious look, to which she just shrugged.

"We should get out of here and do something," Wanda said, standing up and I shook my head. "Why not?" she asked once she saw me.

"Because I'm not doing anything today at all," I replied and she giggled.

"Right. Jeb won't give us any more time off, you know."

"Wanda, Wanda, Wanda; why do you think he gave us that stupid job yesterday?" she shrugged. "He wanted us to work things out..."

"And we did," she replied but I shook my head again.

"No... trust me, he doesn't expect either of us to lift a finger at all today," I answered and she frowned.

"That's wrong though; we haven't done much around here and..." I quickly stood up and clapped a hand down over her mouth to silence her protests before she got going too much.

"Sorry," I apologized once I saw the stink eye that she was giving me. "But seriously Wanda, there's no reason for you to work today at all, or even think about it for that matter. If Jeb had wanted us, he would have come banging on the door already."

Wanda mumbled something, but I couldn't hear it because my hand was still on top of her mouth and I quickly removed it.

"I suppose that's true," she mused and I smiled down at her.

"Well still," Wanda said and I raised my eyebrows. "I should probably get out of your hair or something. I can take our dishes down to the kitchen and then get cleaned up or something."

"Wanda, you look fine," I tried to reassure her, brushing a stray piece of her golden hair out of her face. "Trust me. And you don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to."

"It's your room Ian," she said, shaking her head. "I don't want to impose on you."

"Listen, if you want to stay here with me, I won't say no, but," I continued, not pausing to hear the objection at the tip of her tongue, "I don't want you to feel like you have to stay here either. If you want to go back to Doc's caves, I guess that's all right as well."

I tried not to let my disappointment show through my tone as I thought about her moving back to Doc's, but I meant what I said and I said what I meant; I was willing to give her time or space if she needed it, as long as Wanda felt that it was best.

"I just don't want you to feel like you _have_ to share your room with me; I'm sure that we could find somewhere else for me to be," Wanda suggested and I nodded, dropping my head down to hide my face. I really wished that she had wanted to stay with me, but I wasn't going to push her.

"If that's what you really want," I shrugged, planting a smile on my face and looking up at her. Wanda frowned and placed one of her small hands on my cheek and I instinctively leaned into it, placing my own hand on top of hers.

"You don't want me to find somewhere else to stay do you?" she asked, looking right up at me and I thought that she could almost see clear through me. "Be honest, it's okay."

I almost lied to her, but I didn't think that it would exactly go over well, considering that we had just decided to be open and give us another try.

"No, I don't want you to," I told Wanda, giving her a small smile. "Truthfully, I want you to stay in here with me because it's where you belong."

"I belong here?" she asked quietly and I nodded, removing her hand from my cheek and lacing my fingers with hers.

"You do. I can't stand the thought of you staying anywhere else but with me now. I know that it's a bit silly, but I feel oddly possessive over you once again. It didn't take that long for me to feel that way, but I do," I figured that as long as I was telling her, I might as well tell her everything.

"So it's safe for me to admit that I don't want to go back to Doc's room, or anywhere else for that matter?" Wanda smiled and I nodded my head.

"Absolutely," I responded, pulling Wanda to me and wrapping my arms around her in a crushing hug. I kissed the top of her head before releasing her a little bit and she lifted her head once again to look up at me.

"Good. I was just worried about your reaction," she said, shrugging a little and I smiled; she would be worried about that.

"Don't be, Wanda, you shouldn't be afraid of me ever. We should go and get your stuff then if you're going to move back in here," I told her just before she pushed herself away from me and started walking over to the doors.

"You coming?" she called to me and I smiled and nodded, making my way over to where she stood.

Once I got close enough to her, I reached out and tried to take her hand with mine, but she moved at that exact moment and I missed her by about an inch. I watched as she moved the door out of the way and motioned for me to go through first, but I shook my head and nodded for her to. Wanda simply raised an eyebrow and I gave up that battle, knowing that she had made up her mind on that and I wasn't going to fight her about something as trivial as who was going to walk through the door first. I walked out into the hall and waited for Wanda so that I could finally hold her hand and then we set out for Doc's room together.

**Wanda POV**

He was still hurting, it was plain to see. Even when Ian smiled I could still see the hurt and resentment that resided behind the little mask that he had put on. I wasn't sure that he knew that he was doing that, but I knew and it still hurt me a little to see that. Granted, I knew that we weren't going to back to being perfectly normal any time soon; if ever, and I knew that the only person that I had to blame for seeing Ian like that was myself.

I couldn't let myself dwell on that any more though, especially when I was around him or else he would realize that something was up, and I didn't want to be the one to explain what I was seeing. Hopefully Ian would come to see it himself; but I wasn't holding my breath on that one. Instead, I decided to try and make everything up to him in the best ways that I knew how to, in hopes that one day we could act normally around each other instead of this stupid dance around the issue that we were doing. I was pretty sure that Ian had no idea about that one either.

I let Ian hold my hand as we walked through the tunnels down to Doc's room, trying to suppress the familiar twist in my stomach that I still felt whenever we touched, even in the simplest of ways. I hadn't realized just how much I had been craving that feeling the whole time that I was away from him until I was touching him again. I had to keep reminding myself though that just because we had kissed a few times and Ian had held me, it didn't mean that everything was okay.

We only passed a few people; most were probably out in the second field working away. Those that we did pass though gave us big smiles, which I couldn't help but to return.

"You know, it's really good to see you smile," Ian said gently in my ear and I smirked.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, teasing him a little.

"It is," Ian said, shrugging his shoulders a little.

I smiled again, not being able to help myself, even knowing that he was probably just saying it to be nice to me or something. We walked in silence the rest of the way down to the room and I nodded at Doc who was sitting at his desk when we walked in.

"Hello," he greeted us and I smiled at him before moving over to where I had stashed my bag before leaving that morning.

"Hey Doc," Ian said semi-cheerfully and I saw Doc stand out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed my bag and stood up turning to look at them just in time to see them shake hands with each other. I could have sworn that I saw Doc give Ian a significant look and rolled my eyes at the thought of what Doc was probably thinking about.

"Are you leaving me, Wanda?" Doc joked and I blushed, feeling a little guilty for not talking to him about it first.

"Uh, yeah I am Doc. Sorry about that," I apologized immediately. "I guess I should have spoken to you before now, I suppose." I looked down at the ground and kicked a little stone away, not wanting to see Doc's face in case he was mad at me; which was not a realistic thought for him to be mad, but I just couldn't help myself from thinking it.

"Wanda, it's okay," Doc chuckled and I looked up to see him smiling down at me and I felt a little silly; rightfully so. "You don't need my permission to move around the caves as you please. Have you talked to Jeb about your move at least?"

"It's not like he's going to care much, she's just moving back in with me," Ian explained, walking over to my side.

I looked up at Doc to see his eyebrows raised before he quickly recovered himself and smiled as well. Deep down when I had agreed to move my stuff back into Ian's room I had known that it would cause a little stir, seeing as how we weren't even really talking the day before. I worried about what they would think of me for the way that Ian essentially was 'taking me back' after everything that had happened. I felt Ian squeeze my shoulder and looked up to see a questioning look on his face; I just smiled up at him and he seemed to lighten up a bit.

Clearly he didn't seem to see that we had a long road ahead of us, not only in terms of our own relationship, but the ones we had previously formed with others. For the past few weeks the caves were basically divided; some people seemed to be on 'my' side and believed me while others sympathized with Ian and were behind his anger 100 percent.

We said our goodbyes to Doc and turned to walk out of the room. Before we got too far though, Ian reached down and grabbed my bag out of my hands, smirking at me.

"What is that for?" I asked, a little frustrated that he _still_ wouldn`t let me carry my bags.

"I'm just trying to be a gentleman and carry your bag for you," Ian replied, smirking.

"You know, even though I was gone all that time, nothing changed," I reminded him, reaching for it.

"You're right; I can still carry your bags and you can still complain about it; you're right, nothing changed," he said, grabbing my hand with his and I shook my head, deciding to let it go.

We walked back to the room in relative silence, Ian would say something every once in awhile, but I still found the journey a little uncomfortable and the conversation between us was almost forced. As we rounded the corner, I noticed a figure leaning up against the wall right by Ian's door and I immediately became suspicious, as I had thought that everyone was working. The person was standing in the shadow, so I couldn't see who it was. Out of instinct, my body stiffened and I slowed my pace, which also alerted Ian to how I was feeling about the mystery person.

"Who's there?" Ian called out and the person pushed off of the wall and began walking towards us. I tried not to be a little frightened, and immediately felt stupid for feeling nervous when they stepped into a band of light and I saw that it was just Melanie.

"Were you trying to give me a heart attack?" I asked her, clutching my chest that held my rapidly beating heart.

"No, but if I did then that's all the more power to me," she laughed and yanked my hand away from my chest, effectively pulling me away from Ian, only he didn't let go, so it only jerked my other arm.

"Ian, I'm stealing her away from you for a little bit," Mel announced and I saw Ian frown and pout a little and I couldn't help but to giggle and squeeze his hand.

"I'll be back," I told him and he sighed.

"Promise?"

"Promise," I echoed him and he let go of my hand.

"Finally," Mel huffed, practically dragging me down the hall away from him. I looked back to see Ian smile and shake his head before walking towards the room.

"What is so important that you had to rip me away from him?" I asked her once we were far enough away.

"I figured that you could use a little break from him," she shrugged, letting go of my arm. "Promise you won't run back to him now?"

I just rolled my eyes and continued to walk forward.

"You were right though," I told her and she whooped and jumped up and down.

"I knew it! The all-knowing Melanie was right again!" she cheered and I shook my head.

"Yeah yeah. How did you know though?" I asked and she turned to look at me.

"Because you've spent a _lot_ of time with him over the last two days, which you haven't been doing since you got back here. I knew that one of you would be driving the other person crazy," Mel answered.

"But it's not that," I said. "It's more like... he seems to be clouded with the notion that we're giving us another shot and is not really thinking about the reality of the situation and how it's not a lovey dovey and we need to think about the divided people and everything and..."

I stopped when I felt her hand on my arm again and Mel had halted us in the tunnel we were in.

"That's because boys are stupid. They're dumb when they're young and they don't get much better as they get older either; they don't think with their heads," she said in a very philosophical way and it took a lot out of me not to laugh at her.

"Hey! That's not true!" Jared's voice sounded from behind us and I smiled when I saw him walking up.

"Well don't be offended; you shouldn't have been eaves dropping," Mel said matter-of-factly as Jared came up and kissed her head.

"I was just on my merry old way to get something to eat, you guys coming?" he asked and I shrugged, having no clue where Mel had intended for us to go to have our 'talk'.

"Yeah, we'll be there just give us a minute," she told him and he nodded, hugging her one last time before turning to walk away.

"Wanda, just give Ian a day or so to get over this before he starts to think clearly," Jared said and Mel smacked his arm.

"Get out of here, you're stealing my lines!" she yelled at him, but it was in a playful manner.

"I'm going, I'm going," he said, pretending to look hurt. "But you were wrong, Mel."

"What was I wrong about this time," she said, looking at me before rolling her eyes and I giggled.

"We think with our heads; just no necessarily the right head all the time."

I kind of stood there while Mel opened her mouth to say something back to Jared, but he had already taken off running and laughing at the same time, which was probably smart; judging by her reaction it was something stupid for Jared to say.

"I'm going to murder him one day," she threatened and I laughed.

"You would never," I told her, touching her arm. "You love him too much."

"Yeah," she replied, getting a distant look in her eyes.

"What was he talking about though?" I finally asked her and she snorted.

"Ask Ian. Come on; let's get some lunch before it's all gone. I'm still not done talking to you about everything though, just for the record," Melanie said, pointing a finger at me and I shrugged.

We walked to the kitchen just talking and grabbed some food; they had made pasta, which was a rarity, but before I could find a table to sit at, Mel grabbed my elbow and began to steer me out of the kitchen.

"Mel, I hate to whine, but I just want to eat my food," I told her and she laughed.

"I know, but I want to discuss with you in a place where there aren't too many ears to hear us. There's a small cave next door that no one ever goes inside," she explained, stopping at the entrance to it.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said, looking at the small, short entrance.

"Nope. Hold my food and I'll crawl in first," she instructed me, handing me her bowl before she dropped to her knees and entered the small cave. After a minute or so she announced that she was in and to pass the food to her.

I did and then crawled through and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of space that was actually inside there. The initial tunnel to get inside was just big enough for a normal sized person to crawl through without bonking their heads, but the cave space itself was quite large and could probably fit about five or six people. The ceiling was so far up in it that I couldn't actually see where it was, but there were a few spots of sunlight peaking through some cracks in the upper walls.

"See? I wouldn't lead you astray Wanda," Mel said, taking a bite of her food. I nodded in agreement before scooping up some pasta of my own to eat.

"Okay, so back to the topic at hand; aka Ian's apparent ignorance about the outside world," she started and I nodded. "What's he being like?"

"Well, I guess he's just trying to make it how it was before, because I agreed to give us another shot and everything and..."

"Did you just agree because he pressured you into it?" she interrupted and I glared at her. "Sorry."

"It's okay. And no. Well, I suppose, in a way because when I hesitated he just looked so down that I couldn't bear to make him miserable again. Plus, I wasn't sure that I could handle not being able to be around him, which was basically the other option."

"Stupid boys," she muttered under her breath, but I pretended not to hear it and instead took another bite.

"So yeah; Ian basically told me that we could try again, be friends or give each other space, but it was basically him saying 'me or nothing'."

"So you chose him."

"Well, yeah. But I don't think that he realizes exactly that we _can't_ go back to being the way that we were; not right away at least. I almost feel like I'm skirting around the huge elephant in the room that is the fact that I had hurt him, even though we've talked about it over and over again," I explained and she nodded.

"So is he just taking it too fast then?"

"I guess in a way he is. I mean, we moved all my stuff back in to his room today, and that doesn't bother me so much, but he was really down when I mentioned going back to Doc's room that I basically just agreed with staying with him."

"And do you not want to?" Melanie asked and I shook my head.

"No, I want to, but I think he's just trying too hard to make everything the way that it was, and we basically have to start all over again in a way, but I don't think that he gets that," I finished and took a big bite of pasta, suddenly not all that hungry any more.

"You should talk to him about this," she said and I shook my head.

"Honestly Mel, he's in such a bubble right now that I don't want to burst it and hurt him more," I said but she frowned.

"Don't you think that by not telling him you're just going to hurt him more?"

I thought about that one for a minute before nodding.

"It sounds like Ian is just being Ian and trying to do the best thing for you," she started to say and I nodded. "He's also probably trying to protect himself as well and this might be a coping mechanism, but I really don't know; I'm not him."

"I know," I said softly, feeling guilty for not being hungry so I shoved a huge forkful of food in my mouth.

"Ew. Please don't choke on me. But what I was going to say before you decided to gulp down a huge mouthful and distracted me, was that you need to talk to him, and before this gets too late and out of hand. The worst thing that you could do is to hurt him again with your relationship and trust. I think that's a huge part of it you know," she told me and I nodded, finally swallowing.

"All right, now that that is out of the way, I have an important question to ask you," Melanie announced, sitting up on her knees and looking down at me, smiling wide.

"What?" I asked a little warily at her reaction.

"Will you be my maid of honour?" she asked clapping her hands together.

I didn't immediately recognize the term, so I began to rapidly flip through all of Pet's memories to see if I could find an image for it. After another moment she spoke again.

"You don't know what it means, do you? I can see you searching; you've got that far away look on your face, so you can't even lie to me."

"No, I do," I said, finally finding it. "And yes, I will."

"Yeah!" Melanie practically screeched and it hurt my ears as the sound echoed around in the small cave.

"Thank you so much!" she practically gushed while wrapping me up in a hug that I promptly returned.

"It's really no problem," I told her laughing, but she looked at me seriously for a minute.

"You won't be laughing when it gets closer to the wedding date; I get really nervous about certain things and I have a feeling that this might be one of them."

"I've got your back."

"Thank you," she said, squeezing me again before declaring that she was going to take our dishes back to clean them up for us since it was still technically my day off and that she wasn't going to listen to any of my protests.

We wiggled our ways out of the cave and I took one look at it, trying to commit its location to memory so that I could remember where it was before going our separate ways, but not before another hug from Melanie.

I decided to go and see where Ian had gotten to and way half way through the main plaza when I heard my name being called. I looked to see Jamie waving at me and I halted, waiting for him to sprint the rest of the way over to me, since he was already half way there.

"How are you doing? Is Ian treating you fine? He's not hurting you, is he?" Jamie began a set of rapid fire questions, but I shook my head and giggled.

"Jamie, I'm fine; really. Ian's being really nice to me, so you have nothing to worry about," I told him, still smiling.

"Are you sure? Because I could teach him a lesson or two if you wanted me to," he offered but I frowned.

"Jamie Stryder; if your sister heard what you were saying right now..." I said, shaking my head and he chuckled.

"Good thing Melanie's not here then," he said with and wink and I nodded. Jamie looked down at me again before wrapping me up in a hug. I tentatively hugged him back.

"What is this for?" I asked and he shrugged, still holding me.

"You looked like you could use one," he replied once he let me go and I smiled.

"Well thank you. But what are you doing out of school?"

"I'm on lunch break Wanda. You know that we're allowed to have them, right?" he asked, looking at me funny and I nodded.

"Course I do."

"Well, I'd better get going before Sharon eats me or something," he said, rolling his eyes. "But are you going to the soccer game later?"

"Soccer game?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Ask Ian," Jamie said as he spotted Maggie marching her way over to him to probably yell at him for taking so long.

"Why is everyone telling me that?" I said under my breath as I set out for Ian's room again, thinking that would be the most likely place to look for him. I wasn't so sure about actually playing in the game, but I would certainly go and watch. Hopefully it would bring some unity to everyone.

**A/N: So it's a bit late, but I was caught up in Christmas stuff, I'm allowed :P  
Plus, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this story and what I should do with it. I really appreciated your reviews and support on this decision. So... I'm going to continue this for a few more chapters, I have no idea how many. I'm going to add something else and then end it and do a sequel.  
The reason that I feel that I have to end this and then start a sequel is because I'm feeling a natural ending to it, and there is really no point in forcing anything more if it's not genuine. I feel that the "Broken and Bleeding" part of my story is over with for the most part, and the time will come where we need to close one story and open up another. I hope that everyone will still continue to support me and I am grateful for everyone who has stuck with me up until now, and into the future!**

**(No, this is not the last chapter, even though that note might have made it seem that way)**

**On another note... has anyone been watching the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships?? I have been and yay for Team Canada so far! So far they're 3-0-0 and have scored 30 goals in 3 games with only 2 scored on them! But because of that, I'm a little worried about their next game against the U.S. on New Years. I hope that they haven't gotten too cocky because of the blow outs these last 3 games have been for them.**

**Anywhoo.  
Review! :)**


	36. A Little Less Conversation

**Thirrrty five! NEVER thought that I'd ever write a story this long, so this is very exciting!!**

**Thanks to kimmitwilight, TeamIanandEdward, iamnicolecullen, brokenfromthepast, Twi-Twanger, TK-MR, anoek013, RawSugarX23, piccolover22, ladaane, HockeeChica, islandofdreams, macaronichezez96, hanaharoo, yourmumwenttocollege., BlazingWolfFire and stefffie for your awesome reviews!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Mel POV**

After I had taken our plates back to the kitchen, I had put them in the bin and then leaned back against the counter.

"You okay Mel?" Trudy asked me and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about a conversation that Wanda and I just had is all," I said, shrugging my shoulders before smiling at her.

"I'm glad that she's back," Trudy told me, patting my shoulder. "It just wasn't the same around here without her. And it was awfully brave of you to go out and bring her back."

"It was scary, but it had to be done," I said. "Plus, if I didn't do it someone would have anyways."

"I don't know about that," Trudy said, dishing out some more pasta on a few plates. "Sure we all missed her, but I think we were too fearful of going out there and getting caught like she did to go and rescue her."

"You know that she wasn't really _caught_ in that sense, right?" I asked her and she nodded.

"I heard the story of how she was taken and all, but still; it took a lot of courage."

I shrugged and offered to help her, but she shooed me away insisting that I go and do the job that I was assigned to do; that I didn't need to do anything extra at all.

I took her advice and left the back of the kitchen and scanned the room looking for Jared, not spotting him anywhere. I sighed and walked down and out of the dining hall, turning the corner while looking the other way and ran smack into someone.

"Sorry!" I said, trying to assess my body to see if there was any damage. I felt a pair of arms around my waist and heard a chuckle, realizing that it was just Jared that I had bonked into and I didn't feel so bad.

"I was just looking for you," I told him, wrapping my arms tight around his neck.

"Well what a coincidence, so was I," he said, letting me go a little bit and taking my hand. He smiled down at me and I returned it, but not very enthusiastically.

"What's wrong, Melly," he asked, running a hand through my hair and I shrugged.

"Just thinking about some things," I said to him while spinning my engagement ring around my finger with my thumb at the same time.

"You want to talk about them?"

"Not here," I said, shrugging.

Jared was silent for a minute before I smiled at him and tugged on his arm, determined to have the conversation with him right then instead of putting it off like Wanda was doing to Ian; that shit just wasn't fair to him. We passed Jamie on our way and he gave me a funny look, but I just smiled at him. As we got closer to our room, Jared wrapped his hand around my waist before pushing the piece of cloth aside and letting me lead him through.

I sat down on the mattress and looked up at Jared, realizing then just how distressed he seemed to be.

"Jared are _you_ okay?" I asked him, a little worried.

"Uh, yeah baby I'm fine," he lied, pacing around while running a hand over his face a number of times. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?"

I pulled my knee up to my chest, resting my nose and chin on it.

"Spit it out already Mel, you're killing me," Jared said and I could audibly hear the distress in his voice.

"Do you think we're moving too fast?"

So fast that I barely even saw the movement, Jared was on his knees in front of me and I could see that his face was absolutely white with panic. He placed his hands on the mattress around me and was breathing rather heavily.

"Jared, are you okay?" I asked, cupping his face in my hands, really concerned about him.

"I uh. Define moving too fast," he said, swallowing hard.

"Well I was just talking to Wanda a little while ago and she feels that Ian is moving too fast and trying to get them back to where they were before that whole mess and I wondered if I had done the same thing to you once I was back in my own body. I mean, don't get me wrong," I said, pressing my forehead to his as I could see him growing paler. "I love where we are now and I love that we're going to be married some day, but I can't help to wonder if I maybe pushed you too hard to get to this point."

"Oh Mel," he said, sighing and I could see him visibly relaxing a little. Jared put his hands over top of mine on his face before pulling them away and linking our fingers together.

"No, I don't think that we were moving too fast at all," he said with sincerity in his voice. "Honey, I would have told you if I had thought that; you know I would have."

"Yeah, but I just can't help but to wonder," I said, shrugging. "I mean, we were apart just like they were and you put up a front like Ian and then I got my body back and..."

"I can see where you're trying to go with this and it's not going to work, Mel," Jared said, cupping his hand around my cheek. "Yes, our situations might seem a little similar, but at the same time they're very different, you know. For instance, we knew each other for awhile, before we were separated like that, so we had way more history; it was only natural that we would pick up where we had left off. Ian and Wanda didn't have that though. They had only known each other for a few months while she was in your body; and only a month after she was taken out. I think that you're forgetting that they didn't have nearly as much time together to work everything out beforehand."

"You're right Jared," I told him, releasing his hold on my hand and wrapping both of my arms around his neck. "But I just can't help but to feel that our engagement was..."

"Mel, I will wait as long as you want before we get married, I promise you that," Jared interrupted me and I rolled my eyes before gently hitting his arm.

"You shouldn't interrupt me," I chastised him and he smiled.

"Sorry baby. What were you saying?"

"Ah, I forget," I said, smiling sheepishly and he leaned into peck my cheek.

"All right, well if you remember, let me know and we'll talk about it, okay?" he asked and I nodded, running my fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

After a few minutes of silence, I smirked at him.

"I remember now," I said with a giggle and he laughed at me.

"Tell me then," Jared prompted me, running a hand through my hair.

"Why did you propose to me? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love you and I love that we're going to be married; but to me it seemed very out of the blue. We didn't really discuss it much at all or anything," I kept talking so that he wouldn't cut me off but when I finished I felt a little silly, so I looked down at the ground instead.

"I proposed to you because you are amazing, Melanie Stryder; you really are, and you don't take the time to step back and realize that half of the time. You're smart, independent, amazing, strong-willed, beautiful... there are dozens of other words to describe you, I just can't think of them all right now," he said with a chuckled and I giggled, looking up at Jared's face to see that he was beaming and I could practically feel the love radiating off of him.

"Mel, you're my other half in so many ways; and I know that everyone knows that we're together and in a time like this it's kind of silly for someone to get married when it can't even be legalized or properly documented, but I have to make you mine. I think a part of me has always wanted to from the first time that I saw you in that house and you kicked me," he said, running his hand through my hair again and cupping the back of my head. "It's kind of selfish of me, and you're more than welcome to tell me to piss off if you don't feel the same way, but it's the truth."

"I know, Jared. And I feel the same way; I can't wait to be yours, you know that," I said to him, patting his cheek. "I probably don't say it enough but I really am thankful that you are in this situation with me, Jared, I wouldn't want it any other way. I think that I've taken what we have for granted too much and I know that it's something for me to work on, but Ian and Wanda's situation helped me to take a step back and have a closer look at our relationship. You just never know when someone you love could be ripped away from you."

"That will never happen to us again, Mel," Jared said before kissing my nose. "I won't let it. And if for whatever reason something happens to us, we go down together."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I told him, smiling.

"God I love you so much, Mel," Jared said sighing and I gently laughed.

"I love you too."

Jared leaned in then and pressed his lips to mine gently before I started to kiss him back. We didn't get carried away or anything because we didn't need to; the kiss was sort of a mutual understanding between us, knowing that we were in it for the long haul and nothing was going to stop us. When we broke apart, Jared kissed both of my cheeks before wrapping me up in his arms and burying his face in my hair.

"When we get out of here, I'm going to officially make you my wife. We can do the whole big white wedding thing and have anyone that you want there and we'll go on a honeymoon and I'll frame the document with our signatures on it so that every time we walk past it, it will remind us of everything that we'd been through and how we made it," he whispered fiercely and it brought tears to my eyes.

"You're too good to me," I said, my voice sounding thick with emotions and he gently shushed me.

"I don't need all of that stuff though," I whispered back one I'd regained some composure. "I mean, the framed document and the honeymoon sounds fantastic and everything, but I don't need the lavish wedding or anything like that, Jared. I'd be just as happy with a few close friends and be done with it. I've already asked Wanda to be my maid of honour, just so you know."

"Mmn, how did she take that?" he hummed in my ear and I shrugged.

"Took her awhile to come up with what the term meant, but she seemed enthusiastic for the most part."

"I was going to ask Ian," he said and I nodded. "When Jamie and I came to the caves he was the first one to really accept us; even if our friendship did get a little strained when you came to us, and there are times that I could wring his neck, but he's a good guy."

"He is," I replied. "Aren't you worried that Kyle will try to beat you up for not asking him though?"

"Nope," Jared answered simply. "He'll get over it really quick."

"Don't you go causing trouble though," I warned him and he laughed.

"Don't worry about me; I can hold my own."

"That's what I'm worried about," I mumbled and Jared squeezed me tight.

"Knock knock!" a voice called from the door and I rolled my eyes, slightly annoyed that someone was interrupting our moment.

"Can I help you?" I asked as Jared released me and I saw Brandt stick his head through the curtain.

"We're all heading down for a game of soccer, are you guys in?" Brandt asked and Andy poked his head around too, nodding like crazy.

"It's up to you, Mel," Jared said, looking down at me and I smiled, liking that he was giving me the option of staying back and continuing what we were doing.

"Let's go," I said to him, wanting to play since it had been too long; and plus, our moment was kind of ruined anyways.

Jared stood up and held a hand out to me, which I took and he helped me up off of the mattress before pulling me close to him for another hug. I held him and we rocked back and forth a few times before he let go of all of me except for my hand and led me back out of our room and through the mess of halls to the games room. I was really glad that we had had that talk as it helped to clear the air a bit with the things that were on my mind; but I hoped that it didn't scare him off at all. It didn't seem to, but Jared could be the master of disguise when he wanted to be.

**Jared POV**

When Melanie told me that she 'had to talk with me' it seriously scared the crap out of me; those are the words that no guy wants to hear at any time in their life, especially when they're coming from their fiancé. Those words are right up there with 'it's not me, it's you', and I'd heard that enough times in my life to last me for the rest of it.

Although I knew the reasoning in behind Mel's insecurities about our engagement, it still hurt me a little to know that she questioned it like she did. Granted, we didn't discuss it a lot before I did propose to her, but I was glad that she had accepted, not really thinking anything else of it.

I looked down at Melanie as we walked through the halls towards the games room and smiled to myself at how lucky I had been when I found her. Little did I know way back when I had seen her in that kitchen that I had met my other half then and I would stay with her for the rest of our lives; I was certainly glad of the outcome.

I knew from the moment that she had first touched me and I felt a little spark between us that I could never let her go; never mind the fact that I wouldn't have even if I hadn't felt that because she was the only human I'd had contact with in a long time, but still. I didn't know if she had noticed the electricity between us right away, but I figured that she had come around by the time that we'd settled in at the cabin and she suggested that we had taken the bed instead of Jamie. At first I was shocked about that because I never expected it, and she was also younger then, but inside I was cheering at the notion that she must have felt something for me or she never would have mentioned it.

I took my hand from hers and wrapped it around her waist, effectively crushing Mel into my side as we continued to walk. I wasn't exactly sure how she would react since she wasn't a really big fan of showing huge amounts of affection around the others, but she simply wrapped her arm around my back and nuzzled her head under my arm. I gave her a gentle squeeze and resisted the urge to kiss the top of her head; I would save that for when Brandt and Andy buggered off so she wasn't as likely to kill me or something. I hated that little rule of hers, but I was determined to follow it so that I didn't end up in the proverbial dog house, but it was a rule that I would try and break eventually.

We finally entered the game room where I noticed that just about everyone was gathered; it seemed that even uptight Sharon had let school out so that the kids could go and watch as well. I saw Jamie warming up with Aaron, laughing and continuing on and it made me feel good that I could bring that kind of happiness to the kid after everything that he'd gone through in his short life. Freedom and Isaiah buzzed around the room, running through people's legs in what looked like an intense game of tag; seeing them playing around made me think of a younger version of Kyle and Ian.

"Where's Ian and Wanda?" I asked Sunny as she had come to stand by Mel's side. It was funny, after all that the six of us had been through, she was still only really comfortable around Wanda and Kyle; but could manage Melanie's presence. She still had a bit of a hard time around Ian and I, but we were getting there.

"Kyle went to go and find out," Sunny said to me, but was facing away from me. "They knew about the game from Jamie, but hadn't shown up so he went. I hope nothing happens to him."

"He'll be fine, Sunny. Ian's been a little better to him since he's got Wanda back with us," Melanie tried to reassure the other girl, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Really, Sunny. Kyle's been able to hold his own with Ian since they were kids; and plus I doubt that Ian would do anything to him in the first place, there really isn't any reason for him to," I added and she nodded.

Mel lifted her head up to smile at me, turning up a corner of her mouth and I couldn't help but to lean in that time and kiss her and she didn't even protest or make a scene; it gave me hope that she was slowly going to let go of some of her silly rules.

After a few more minutes of mingling with everyone, Kyle came running back into the room and scooped up Sunny in his arms, spinning her around in circles and making a scene, despite her protests. I could feel Melanie giggling against me and even I had to crack a smile at seeing Kyle so carefree and not as uptight as he usually was.

"They're on their way," Kyle announced to everyone once he'd put a slightly dizzy Sunny back down on her feet. "He said to go ahead and pick the teams though and that it didn't matter whose team he was on."

A murmur of laughter spread throughout the crowd as they all gathered around to choose the teams. They nominated me as one captain and Andy as the other and I right away chose Mel to be on my team and I heard a few groans, as they knew how good Mel could be when she really truly was on her A-game. Andy chose Paige and then Kyle and we then split up everybody else up between the two of us until there was just Wanda, Jamie and Ian left to pick from; Jamie was always among the last to be picked not because of his age, but because he wanted to be for whatever estranged reason.

"Well," said Andy, internally weighing his options. It was unlikely that Wanda would actually play, but we didn't know if she would or not since they hadn't shown up by that point. He also already had Kyle, so taking Ian would be like having a double threat, but on the other hand Jamie was also an incredible player as well.

"Hurry up already!" Jeb shouted from the back of my team and we all laughed.

"All right, all right! I choose Jamie," Andy decided and Jamie fist pumped the air.

"Yes! Now I get to beat my sister and everything!" he cheered and I knew that Mel was glaring at him.

"Not if I can help it, little brother," she said playfully, smacking the back of his head and he ducked so he didn't get the full force of her hand.

"Fine, then I get Ian and we'll see what Wanda wants to do," I said and Andy nodded, stepping forwards to shake my hand.

"Let's get everything set up while we wait for the other two and then they can just join in or whatever when they get here," Paige suggested as she and Violetta took off running for their teams' bench, declaring themselves the second line.

Jeb ran down to my net while Maggie went to the other side's net and I smiled as the air seemed to buzz with excitement for the game. It had been way too long since we'd all gotten together like that for a good reason, and to have fun to boot.

"You okay Howe?" I heard Mel's voice call out to me and I turned around to smile at her.

"Course I am!" I responded and she laughed. "You want to take centre?"

"No, that's your spot Jared!" she said and I shrugged.

"I'm willing to give it up for you."

"No way!" ________ yelled out to me and I laughed, turning in their direction. "There's no way that you can give up that position Jared, that would be like suicide! No offense, Mel."

"None taken," she laughed, beaming up at me and I shrugged. "I'll be on your line though."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I told her as she walked over and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight before letting me go a little. "Let's kick their asses, okay?"

"Fine by me," I laughed before kissing her forehead.

"Hey, look who decided to show up!" Brandt called out from where he was stretching with Lucina and Trudy.

I looked towards the doorway where Ian and Wanda were finally walking into the room and I saw that she was blushing and sort of hiding in his side, which was partly her body's natural reaction to being announced like that, and partly all Wanda.

"They didn't talk," Mel stated and I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked and she turned around so that it didn't look like we were explicitly talking about them.

"Remember how I said that I'd talked to Wanda about how she thought they were moving too fast?" I nodded. "Well I told her to go and talk to Ian about it and I can tell that she didn't. Just by the way that they're walking I can tell."

"You're crazy," I said, wrapping up our little conversation as they got closer.

"Ian, you're on our team," Mel told him and he nodded. "Wanda, are you playing?"

She shook her head and started to walk away from us, but Ian grabbed her around the waist and kissed her head before she got too far. I rolled my eyes, but smiled a little since I'd basically done the same thing to Mel not minutes before and we all got lined up to play. I really wanted to win that game.

**Wanda POV**

So I'd chickened out of talking to Ian about everything like I had told Mel that I would; I just couldn't bring myself to once I got back to the room. When I moved the door aside and walked through, he had bounded off of the bed and leapt over to me to sweep me up in his arms, claiming that he missed me. Even though I knew that it was him trying to make everything the way that it was before, I still couldn't help but to melt in his arms and hold him all the same.

While I was talking to Mel, he had taken my bag and opened it up, sorting all of my clothes by type and then by colour before laying them all out on the mattress for me. I walked in to see that he had moved all of his clothes back to where they had been kept and together we had organized the room and all of my belongings were put back where they belonged; that wasn't something that Ian had said, I had felt that it was where they were meant to be.

I had noticed that the mirror he had built was suspiciously missing and there were next to no remnants of it on the floor around it; the red rock sort of shimmered under the place that it had hung, but there was nothing else. When I had asked him about it, he had shrugged and said that he was going to build a better one anyways.

We had just finished putting everything away when Kyle barged in, demanding to know why Ian and I weren't down in the game room with everyone else for the soccer game that was apparently waiting for him to start. I blushed as I realized then that I had forgotten to tell Ian about the game, but he had just laughed and told Kyle to go ahead and get started without him.

The whole way down through the tunnels, Ian had pestered me about playing, but I really didn't feel like it. He had made me promise though that he would work with me so that I could play in the next game that they all held, so I supposed that I was morally obligated to learn to run and push my body faster.

When we had arrived, they made a big show out of it and I was slightly uncomfortable with all the attention; especially considering the fact that the waters still hadn't settled, so to speak. I just walked away from Ian and sat down on the floor by what was to be his bench, according to Jared.

I sat in relative silence on the ground, playing with a stone that I had found beside me and watched as Jared and Kyle led a group warm up of sorts, but all Kyle did was pick on Ian. I found it in my natural instincts to jump up and defend him, but Ian just sort of brushed it off and continued on like nothing had happened.

Eventually the game started and I made small talk with Lily for a bit as I watched Ian play. He was on the same line as Mel and Jared, and together the three of them were just about unstoppable. Kyle, Andy and Brandt were giving them a bit of a hard time, but everything they worked for would be diffused the moment that Jared would get that distinct look in his eye and Mel would dart ahead of the other teams' defence and Ian would pass the ball to her so that she could at least get a shot at Maggie.

After three attempts by them, Mel declared that it was time for her to take a break, so she skipped off of the field and plopped herself down beside me.

"So how was your talk?" she asked and I sighed.

"We didn't talk yet," I said, keeping my eye on Ian and watching as he ran back up towards his net as Lucina passed the ball over to Andy.

"And why the hell not?"

"Because the time wasn't right," I said, shrugging.

"Wanda, the time will never be right unless you actually say 'I have something to talk to you about'; trust me on that. Jared and I had a talk this morning because I told him that we needed to, you know."

"Well good for you and Jared then, but I don't know how to go about talking to Ian about it," I said, smiling as Ian looked over at me then and winked.

"I'm not going to argue about this right now or anything, but please just trust me; the few panicked moments that the guy gets when you say those words are well worth the quality time that you get to have when actually talking," Mel said to me before calling someone out so that she could go back and play in the game.

I sat there and cheered on Ian for the rest of the time that he played before they took a mandatory water break at half time. Ian grabbed some for the both of us and shoved it in my hands despite my protests because I wasn't even playing.

"Wanda, please don't worry about it; it's hot in here, you need to drink some water. And I'm not going to take no for an answer because I don't want another repeat of your fainting spells from before, remember?" he said, settling in beside me and handed me my water. I rolled my eyes and took a sip as he readjusted our bodies so that I was sitting in front of him with his legs spread around me.

"You're doing really well out there," I commented and I heard Ian snort from behind me. "What?"

"We're losing right now, Wanda," he said and I shrugged.

"I can't see that far down to the nets Ian," I said, defending myself. "I'm just going by the general cheers and groans whenever people score and try to match it up with the players."

"Oh Wanda," he said and I felt his hand snake around my waist and hold my upper body tight to his. "You're awesome, you know that?"

"Ian, please," I groaned while leaning back against him and I heard him chuckle.

"Yeah Wanda, you're just _amazing_," Jared teased me in a high pitch voice before dropping to the ground to lie on his back beside us.

"Shut it, Jared," Ian said, which only made Jared laugh.

"Yeah? What are you going to do about it, O'Shea?" Jared said, taunting him and looking over at us.

"Nothing. Nobody's going to do anything to each other," I said, not wanting them to start into something stupid.

"Yeah, just like Wanda said, nothing is going to happen," Mel announced, sitting down beside Jared and he put his head on her legs. "You can have your pissing contest later or something."

"Awe man, you ruin all of our fun, Melanie," Kyle whined as he sat down with us as well. I looked over to see that Sunny was handing out the water to everyone and I felt slightly proud of her and that she was taking the initiative to do so.

"Yeah yeah," she said, running her fingers through Jared's hair and I saw his eyes close involuntarily.

"Hey! You'd better not put him to sleep; we have a game to win!" Ian called out to her and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Pah! You guys can't win this; we've got it in the bag!" Kyle responded, doing some funny sort of gesture towards Ian and Jared.

"No way, we just haven't turned on our A-Game yet," Jared said, jumping into their conversation and I tuned them out, just listening to the humming from Ian's chest as I watched them.

As I sat there leaning up against Ian, I looked around at the rest of the people in the room to see what they were doing. Outside of our little bubble of the six of us, it seemed like there was a lot of resentment towards us and how we were acting around each other; particularly the boys.

I also noticed a few glares in my direction as well and it made me very uncomfortable to see that; knowing that just a month or so prior nobody really had a problem with me at all. I sort of leaned back into Ian's body to try and almost hide myself; it was my body's natural instinct towards the situation and I felt his arm tighten a little around me. I wasn't sure if he was aware of what they were doing or if it was just him holding me to him better, but it helped me a little bit. I noticed that the glares intensified a little when I leaned back into him and it made me slightly scared of them.

After they finished their little banter and relaxed a little, I continued to watch the crowd that were still surrounding us in a sense, wondering if something was going to happen.

"You okay, Wanda?" Ian said gently into my ear, but I was so focussed on the others that I jumped as I wasn't expecting it.

"What? Uh, yeah I'm fine," I said to him as Ian rubbed his hands up and down my arms.

"No you're not, why are you so jumpy?" he asked and I shrugged.

"I dunno. Can we talk about something?" I ended up just blurting out and I felt his actions freeze on my arms.

"Uh... sure," he said and I could hear Ian's voice a little shaky and almost nervous. "Right now?"

"No, later is okay," I responded, turning around to face him. "I'm going to head back to the room, okay?"

"What? No, that's not okay," Ian frowned and I looked way. "Why don't you want to stay down here with the rest of us? We've still got the rest of the game to play and everything."

"I know, but I'm just not feeling so well," I lied, hoping that he could possibly fall for it just the one time and let me go back to the room in peace; I really didn't want to see the others' angry faces any longer.

"Well what's wrong? Are you sick? Should I have Doc take a look at you?" Ian kept asking questions and I could see Kyle eyeing me out of the corner of his eye and I gave him a small smile.

"No, I'm fine, it's just..." I looked up and at the crowd where the majority of them seemed to be staring at me even more since Ian was making a bit of a fuss about my 'sickness'. He followed my gaze and frowned over at the people.

"Is it them?" he asked, nodding his head in their direction and I looked right at him.

"Yes," I whispered quietly. "They've been just... I dunno, but I really think that I should get out of here."

"Absolutely not," Ian said to me, cupping my right cheek in his hand. "You belong here just as much as the rest of them do."

"No, but I just feel uncomfortable Ian. I can't take their glares and everything, that's all."

"Let's get the game started again, and I bet that they'll forget all about their 'glaring' or whatever it is that they're doing," Kyle suggested and Ian nodded.

"Trust me; they're not going to do anything. They're still on your side, don't worry about that, they just need some adjustment time like the last time. It's unfair to you, but it still has to happen, you know?" Ian told me and I nodded.

Jared stood up then and called the game back to order, so some of the people walked away, but I could still feel some eyes on the back of my head. I gave Ian a pathetic pleading face, and he glanced over my shoulder, shaking his head.

"It's just Sharon now, ignore her," I nodded again and sighed. "Do they say anything to you when you work?"

"No, I just get the stares and whatever, but that time felt like they were ganging up on me or something," I admitted and he nodded, seeming to really think about it.

"It's fine. You just stay here and they'll forget all about their silly little thing or whatever it is."

"Okay," I finally agreed, against my better judgement and Ian leaned in to kiss my forehead. He then stood up and rejoined the game right as they started again.

True to Jared's word, his team seemed to flip a switch or something and I was able to hear a lot more cheers coming from him and Mel, so I assumed that they were either catching up or winning. I happened to be sitting at centre field, so when they lined up for something, Ian looked my way and gave me a wink. I giggled and waved back at him and a few people started to yell,

"Heads up!"

I looked quickly and spotted the ball flying in Ian's direction and he wasn't looking. Before I could call out to him, the ball smacked him in the head and bounced off. I stood up in shock, not knowing if he was hurt or anything. Ian shook his head and whipped around to look for whoever had done that.

"Kyle, I'll get you back for that!" Ian yelled and I sighed, thankful that he wasn't really hurting; or at least he didn't show it if he wasn't.

After they'd restarted whatever it was that they'd started to do before Ian was almost knocked out, the ball went flying up the field with Mel and Paige right on its heels, but Ian took off in the other direction. I wondered for a second if he was nuts or something, but then I noticed who was in his line of vision and shook my head. The ball was soon shot down to near where he was and Kyle jumped out to kick it when Ian went up from behind him and shoved him hard, knocking him to the ground while kicking the ball back out to Jared.

"Hey!" Kyle yelled out, thrashing his leg around until it came into contact with the back of Ian's and he too was knocked to the ground.

I jumped up again and began to run over to the two of them just as Ian pinned Kyle into the ground and I was really afraid of what he was going to do then. Sunny was probably upset that Kyle had been knocked down like that and then in turn brought Ian down with him, but I also didn't think that she knew that half of it was just them playing around; at least that's what I thought until Kyle flipped the pair of them over and grabbed Ian's cheeks with his hand, pinching them together.

"Knock it off you two!" Jeb yelled out from the other end as the game stopped and everyone groaned to see the two of them at it again.

Jared jogged up beside me and rolled his eyes before reaching them and pushing Kyle to the side so that they were both lying on the rocky floor beside each other.

"Bunch of idiots," he mumbled, walking away and I nodded in agreement.

"Are you okay?" I asked Ian as I got closer and kneeled down beside him.

"I'm fine, Wanda. It was just Kyle being a jackass again," he responded, laughing.

"Who are you calling a jackass? That was a dick move on your part!" Kyle answered, which only made Ian laugh harder.

"You're the one that started it, you know."

"And I finished it, that's how terrific I am," Kyle said, sitting up and smacking Ian's stomach, making him curl up.

"Oh shit," Kyle then said, scrambling to his feet and taking off across the way. I looked in that direction and saw Sunny standing there with her hands over her mouth and tears on her cheeks. Mel was standing with her and talking to her, but it didn't seem to be helping any.

"Serves him right," Ian said, putting his head back on the ground as he'd been watching Kyle as well.

"Ian!" I chastised him, hitting his arm lightly and he laughed, pushing me a little.

"Are you sure that you're all right, Ian?" Doc asked and we both jumped and looked around to him; we didn't hear him coming at all.

"I'm fine, Doc. Sorry about canning the game like that when my team was winning and all," Ian winked at him and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm sure that you're _real_ sorry about that," Doc laughed, handing him a bottle of water. "Drink that, you must be dehydrated from all of that exertion."

"Course I am," Ian said, sitting up and taking the bottle from him. We chatted with him for a minute as everyone cleared out of the cave in search of food for dinner until it was just the three of us. Doc then left and it seemed eerily quiet in there.

"Did you want to talk now?" Ian asked from beside me and I nodded, my heart pumping wildly in my chest.

"I uh... Jared said something yesterday that I didn't exactly understand," I said quickly. I didn't have enough courage to have the conversation that I actually wanted to have with him and I chickened out.

"Really. And what did Jared say to you that has you confused?" he asked, smiling at me.

"Well, it was after Mel and I had walked away from you and Mel made some sort of comment about how boys are stupid and they don't think with their heads. Relax," I told him as I saw him playfully glare at me. "That's just what she said, I'm only repeating it. But then Jared caught up with us and said something about how boys do think with their heads, but not the right one. I didn't get it, so Mel told me to ask you what it was about."

I leaned away from Ian as I finished explaining because when I had told him what Jared had said, he had spit out the sip of water that he'd taken just then and it sprayed everywhere.

"Ew, Ian," I said, moving away from the wet spot as he wiped his mouth.

"Sorry about that. Are you sure that was what he said?" Ian asked, looking right at me and I nodded.

"Mel did this just to kill me, didn't she? It would have been so much easier if she'd explained, but no, she had to do things the hard way," he said to himself and I frowned.

"So what does it mean?"

"Well, it means that we don't necessarily always think with our brains; which I totally don't agree with, but it's Jared and Melanie and they don't always... whatever," Ian said, shaking his head. "Okay, well..." he trailed off again, running a hand through his dark hair and I could see the hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"Umm. Well. You know how there's like the male anatomy and all..." I nodded, thinking that he was very uncomfortable with explaining it. "Uhh well they call the top of _it_ that and yeah."

I realized what he was talking about and turned my head away promptly as the blush overtook my cheeks and I could feel the heat from it creeping down my neck.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," I apologized, biting my bottom lip. That was _not_ the conversation that I thought that it was going to be.

"No, no it's okay!" Ian said, trying to reassure me right away, but I shook my head. "Wanda, really it's okay."

"I should have just forced Mel to tell me instead of just going along with her; it's my fault."

"And what exactly is your fault? You asked a question and I answered it, no big. Sure it was a little uncomfortable, but that's because Jared's an idiot and Melanie's no better for not explaining, that's all," Ian said and I nodded.

"Wanda please don't feel bad. I don't know why you do feel that way but you totally shouldn't; it's okay," I felt him take my hand and I smiled a little, looking into his bright blue eyes.

"I just feel bad that you had to answer it and I know that it was awkward for you and..." I was cut off when Ian placed his large hand over my mouth and I shook my head.

"Please don't feel bad; I certainly don't," Ian told me and I nodded. "Promise?"

I looked away from him, pretending to think about it and he laughed at me before kissing my cheek.

"You're too cute, you know that?" I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't respond because his hand was still over my mouth.

"What do you say that we go and get some dinner?" Ian asked and I nodded and he finally let go of my mouth. He stood up quickly and held out his hand for me, which I took right away and he pulled me up to my feet, but continued to pull me up until I was practically hanging over his shoulder and staring at his back.

"What are you doing?" I asked and he laughed, hitting my thigh.

"Taking you to dinner," Ian answered nonchalantly and I shook my head.

"Not like this please."

"Oh, well since you said please and all," he quipped before pulling my legs down and somehow manoeuvred me around so that he was carrying me across his chest, supporting my back and legs with his arms.

"Better?" he asked and I nodded at him.

"Much, thank you."

Ian laughed and started to walk out of the tunnel, where we saw two figures coming towards us; I recognized them as Mel and Jared right away.

"How's Sunny?" I asked right away and she shrugged.

"She's a little upset I suppose, but that's the way that you first reacted when you saw them doing that kind of thing until I explained that it was just them playing," she responded and I nodded. "Are your legs broken or something?"

"No, her legs aren't broken; she's just recovering from the explanation that I just gave her, courtesy of you," Ian cut in before I could speak and I giggled, blushing at the memory of our conversation.

"What are you talking about? Mel hasn't said much to you at all, Ian," Jared said, wrapping his arms around Mel's waist and I noticed that she leaned back into him instead of pushing him away like she sometimes did.

"Yes she did... well, actually you said it, but she wouldn't give Wanda the definition," Ian clarified what he was saying .

"Oh my God you _asked_ him about that?" Mel cried out, shaking her head.

"Well, yeah I did; but you wouldn't tell me what it was all about," I said, defending myself and crossing my arms. "You can put me down, you know," I said to Ian and he shook his head.

"Is this about the 'head' thing from earlier?" Jared asked and I nodded, which caused him to dissolve into a fit of laughter.

"I would have told me if you had come to me again, Wanda; I didn't think that you actually had the guts to discuss that with him!" she said and I blushed even deeper.

"All right; it's done, leave her alone and we'll all be good," Ian defended me and I patted his strong chest. "Let's all just go and get something to eat."

"Sounds good!" Mel chimed and I smiled, wiggling so that Ian would let me down; he had already carried me enough. He complied with my silent request, to my surprise, but snaked an arm around my waist instead, kissing the side of my neck.

I saw Mel give me a significant look when he kissed me, but I just smiled at her and she shook her head, clearly not happy that I still hadn't talked to him about everything; but the timing just simply wasn't right. There was no way that I could push it on him hard, especially after dropping something like I did on him with the head thing. I would do it though, and soon .

**A/N: 8 027. I know that it took awhile, but it just wasn't flowing...**

**So Steph announced today that it seems as though they might split Breaking Dawn into 2 movies, as it's tough to fit everything into one; which I totally agree with. She says that if there's a way to do one and really cram everything in, then great, otherwise she'd like two.**

**Uhhh yeah!  
Review! : )**


	37. Lessons

**This is the second last chapter... just so you know. **

**Thanks to Twi-Twanger, piccolover22, stefffie, ladaane, TK-MR, brokenfromthepast, bamy60218, iamnicolecullen, bellandeannedwardfan78, HockeeChica, boosterrich, littledhampir13, RawSugarX23, anoek013, aleex9530, O'SheaFan and quertreader123 for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Wanda POV**

"Well, are you ready?" Ian asked from his spot beside me at the booth with everyone else.

"Ready for what?" I responded, wondering what he was thinking about; we had just finished up our dinner, which was complete with much bantering from Kyle, Ian and Jeb as we all ate.

"Your soccer lesson," he replied, putting his arm around my shoulders and I curled into his chest.

"Right now?" I groaned, not expecting him to bring that up so fast; I figured that he'd give me a day or so to get used to the idea; not throw me right into it like that.

"Yes Wanda, right now. Nobody's down there and I've already hidden the ball away so that we can use it without stealing it off of anyone, cause that always sucks."

"I dunno Ian, we just ate and everything, I don't want to get a cramp or something," I said and he pushed me away from him a little and looked right down at me with his stupid puppy dog pouting face.

I sighed as I looked up at him; he knew that I was never able to resist that face, so it wasn't fair at all. I shook my head and patted his cheek a few times before rolling my eyes and smiling.

"Should I take that as a yes then?" he asked eagerly and I nodded. Ian smiled back at me and nodded a few times.

"Don't push your luck though; if we're doing this it has to be now before I change my mind," I warned and he made to stand up right away, stepping out of the booth and signalling for me to stand in front of him.

"Where are you two running off to?" Mel asked from the other end of the booth but before I could answer Ian had spoken.

"I'm going to give Wanda a soccer lesson so that she can join us the next time that we play."

"I don't think that it will be the next time," I said warily, but he just smiled at me. "I mean, I would love it if it was, but this body is just so slow."

"Then you just need to tone it up a bit. Working with Ian will help," Jared said. "He's a tough as nails coach."

"I call bullshit!"Kyle called out and we all turned to look at him. "Ian is not 'tough as nails' as you put it, Jared. Far from it."

"I sure am!" Ian rebutted while laughing and holding onto my hand.

"Yeah right, Ian. Do you not remember all those times that coach made you cry during our practises?"

"Kyle, I was six!" Ian chuckled, lacing his fingers through mine and squeezing our palms together. "And besides, he was a mean coach to begin with so there."

"You two are so childish," Mel said, shaking her head and leaning her head on Jared's shoulder. "I'm so glad that we have you two around for entertainment purposes, at least."

"Shut it," Kyle told her, but Sunny gasped at his reaction and it quickly made him backpedal and begin apologizing to Mel.

"Come on, let's get going before Kyle starts spewing some more embarrassing stories from our childhood," Ian whispered gently in my ear and I smiled and started to follow him out as he tugged on my hand a little to lead me on.

"Awe, but I think stories from when you were little are cute," I told him and he just laughed.

"Well, I don't really. Especially not when Kyle decides to recount them and all; he tends to elaborate a little more than necessary and I'm not really a big fan of hearing that," he shrugged and I frowned a little.

"But why wouldn't you want to re-live what happened in the past? I think that it's wonderful to hear stories about it and all and..."

"Because I don't like to dwell on the past, Wanda," Ian said, interrupting me as he led me through the maze of tunnels. "It's done and over, and I'm not proud of some of the things that happened; most of which are the things that Kyle would just love to retell. I'm just not up for hearing about it as it brings back too many memories.

"You really don't see how lucky you are, don't you?" I asked gently after thinking about what he had said.

"What do you mean? Of course I do; I understand that I'm damn lucky that Kyle and I even ended up here, I'm lucky that Jeb let us in, I'm lucky that the souls inside our parents haven't come for us, and I'm especially lucky to have you," he finished off, and I swore that he had to gasp for breath at the end of his little rant.

"You're also extremely lucky that you knew your parents and that they loved you as much as they did. You're lucky that you got to experience a normal childhood too, you know," I said lightly. "Freedom and Isaiah will always remember this as their childhood, and it's not exactly the ideal place to be."

Ian didn't answer me right away; which was fine as I didn't really expect him to and we walked along until he stopped dead in his tracks and I ran right into his back.

"Oof," I said as I pushed myself away from him.

"Sorry Wanda," Ian replied, turning all the way around to face me. "I just thought of something, is all. Do you mind if I ask you?"

"Sure Ian, go ahead," I told him, but my voice was a little shaky as I unconsciously became a bit nervous about what he had to say.

"Did you ever know your parents?"

I frowned at him before shaking my head.

"No Ian, we never do. Our existence comes about in an entirely different way than yours does."

"What do you mean?" he asked seriously and I knew that he wanted to have a real conversation about it, but I was a little wary with doing it in the middle of the hallway in case people were eavesdropping or something; which I totally wouldn't have put past them.

"Well," I started, taking his hand in mine and practically dragging him the rest of the way through the main field to the tunnel that led to the games room. "Humans have very different ways of mating and breeding; way different than any other species that I have ever come into contact with. A lot of the offspring on all the worlds that I have been on do not know who their 'parents' are, so to speak; and are conceived through other means, like pollination and such."

"What about the dolphins though? Wouldn't it be similar to the way that the dolphins here on Earth procreate?" Ian asked, but I shook my head.

"Well, in a way it is. I explained it all before, remember? About how they all live with their different sets of grandparents while the parents go off?" he nodded and I shrugged. "It's just different. I can't really go into great detail about it since I've never been there, and the only way for me to get there is if I leave Earth..."

"Which is never going to happen," Ian practically growled.

"Right," I said with a bit of a giggle.

"So..." Ian said, egging me on, and I was fascinated that he appeared to be taking such an interest in my species at that moment, but I was impressed.

"Are you sure that you want to just discuss the boring aspects of our life as souls, or did you want to teach me something about soccer?" I teased him, wiggling my eyebrows.

"Wanda, nothing about your life is boring, I can promise you that," Ian said, reassuring me and wrapping me up in his arms.

"Still, Ian, I thought you wanted to do something."

"Never thought I'd see the day when you asked me to play soccer," he teased and I hit his back gently with my hand.

"I'm not asking; simply distracting," I said, pulling away from him a little.

"Oh right, sure," Ian said, touching my shoulder gently before walking over to pick up one of the spare lanterns that he had made sure they left behind so that we could use it. Even though it was still daylight outside, the games room was too dark; and the lantern wouldn't light up the whole room, just enough so that we could use one net.

"Ready?" he called out to me from where he was standing with the ball.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" I replied, giggling a little as I trotted over to his side.

"Now, first thing we've got to do is work on your stamina; your long distance running so to say, so why don't you run around for a bit and we'll see how you do." I just stood there and looked up at him until he spoke again.

"What?"

"If you think I'm running around by myself, you've got another thing coming, Ian."

"Okay fine, that's legit. I wouldn't want to run by myself either. Come along then," he waved me on and we started jogging at a light pace.

"I always hated when coach made us run laps," he told me and I shook my head.

"So then why are you making me run around if you hated it so much? What makes you think that I will enjoy it?" I half-laughed, concentrating on my footsteps and trying to keep up with his pace.

"No idea. Sounded like a good one though."

"Well it is. I _do_ want to work on long-distance stuff and all. I'm just giving you a hard time, you know that right?" I said, looking right up at him to make sure that he knew that and didn't think that I was being totally ungrateful.

"I do know that," he replied, smiling down at me and I relaxed a little.

We continued to run around until my legs were screaming from exertion and I was incredibly tired, but I refused to stop because we hadn't even run for that long of a time and I wanted to show Ian that Pet's body wasn't as weak as it really was. I thought that I was keeping up a good show until I felt his hand on my arm and we came to a grinding halt.

"Wanda, I think that's enough for now," he told me, but I shook my head stubbornly.

"No, I'm good Ian."

"We can run again later, but I want you to take it easy right now."

"Ian, I'm fine," I protested, but he rolled his eyes at me.

"Please don't try to pull that with me," he chuckled. "Come on, walk around; we can't stop still after running like that."

"Why not?" I asked, following him as we marched around to get the ball and set up the net.

"Because the blood will pool and we don't want that to happen. It's the same as sitting on an airplane forever; you gotta still move around." I didn't necessarily get the airplane reference, but I was still able to follow along. "Or, as my coach used to tell us, 'your legs will explode from the amount of blood moving around inside unless you get moving.'"

"That's horrible, Ian!" I gasped, still following him around.

"Yeah, well, the man wasn't exactly cut out for coaching young children," he replied and I nodded.

"Was he the one who made you cry?" I asked tentatively and Ian smiled at me, nodding his head.

"Yeah. But not because of that; he was just a mean guy in general."

"Not like you; you're a nice coach," I replied and his smile became wider.

"Why thank you for your optimism, but I'm not much of a coach if you really must know. I don't have much practise, and probably won't until I have children."

At the mention of kids, his blue eyes seemed to sparkle even more and my stomach panged with guilt as I thought of the conversation that I still hadn't had with him about everything. Not that I could blame anyone but me for that; I was the one putting it off and all.

"I'm sure that you will be a fantastic coach for them," I said, liking the mental image of Ian standing with his dark haired, blue eyed children around him, learning from him.

"Let's just hope that they like soccer; even just a tiny bit," Ian chuckled and I shrugged.

"I'm sure that as long as they've got a part of you inside of them that they will love soccer," I said, still smiling at my mental image.

"Well, until they come along, I have you as my guinea pig, all right?"

"Sounds fine to me," I said. "Let's get started."

"I love how you're so eager Wanda," Ian said, hugging me briefly before letting me go to retrieve the ball. He lightly jogged back over and placed the ball at my feet before launching into a whole speech about how to properly hit the ball; half of which I tuned out until he began to ask me questions and I bit my lip while searching for the answers.

"Were you even listening?" Ian asked and I looked away again. "Not even a little bit, eh?"

"I'm sorry Ian, I was really trying to, but I think that I learn better through actually visually seeing things and doing it myself than just listening to you talk. I mean, I get most of what you're saying, it's just that... yeah," I trailed off as I noticed him nodding his head.

"You don't have to apologize, you know; I understand," Ian replied, gently taking my hand. "Come on, I'll help you."

We spent forever on little drills and he taught me how to properly kick the ball, and I ended up even scoring some goals on him, though I was pretty sure that he had let me. I barely noticed that the lantern we had been using was nearly dead until I heard someone call out my name and I turned towards the voice, barely kicking the ball in the process.

"Are you planning on keeping her in here all night O'Shea?" Melanie's voice called out to us and I giggled, finally noticing just how dark it really was in there.

"Do you have a problem with that if I do, Melanie?" Ian asked, coming up beside me and wrapping an arm around my waist.

"I don't have a problem as long as you promise to treat her right and give her all she needs," she responded, winking at me and I blushed, getting her subtle hint.

"Like I would give her anything less," Ian said and she laughed.

"Well I think that it's high time you gave her a break at least," Jared piped up from in behind Melanie. I smiled at him and he gave me a goofy grin back. "We don't want her to keel over again now, do we?"

"Hey!" I said in protest to his little jab at my fainting from months before and everyone laughed.

"Pass it over here, Ian. I'll beat your butt at a game of one-on-one," Mel said to Ian and he nodded, passing the ball over to her before looking at me.

"Is that okay Wanda?" he asked me and I nodded.

"Of course it is," I replied and I took a few steps back before sitting down on the stone ground. A few seconds later, after wishing Mel good luck, Jared came to sit down beside me.

"So how did you like that little lesson? Are you ready to join the rest of us the next time that we play?" Jared asked, lightly bumping my shoulder with his and I shook my head while laughing.

"Definitely not. But I think that with a few more sessions or something I might be able to keep up for at least a little bit of it," I replied and he nodded.

"That's fair."

We sat and watched Ian and Melanie try and beat each other and it was actually quite comical for the most part; she was quite a bit shorter than he was and kept trying to jump up and knock him out of the way, but Ian was holding his ground pretty well. I kept cheering him on while Jared booed at the same time and I couldn't help but to laugh a lot at his efforts to diss Ian. I noticed that every time I laughed, Ian would look over at the two of us almost wistfully, which I didn't necessarily understand; it was almost as if he was jealous about it. He didn't have anything to worry about though; I belonged to him, and nothing could change that, ever.

"Hey what's going on with you and Ian?" Jared asked, breaking the short silence that had fallen between us as we watched Mel and Ian fight for the ball.

"What do you mean?" I answered with a question, tearing my eyes away from Ian to look over at Jared and frown a little.

"Well, I dunno something just seems a little off between you two for some reason."

"Have you been talking to Melanie?" I asked and he shook his head. "Ask her to explain it to you; I'm not in the mood."

I turned my head back to watch Ian running down towards Mel's net and was able to clearly see all of the muscles in his back moving when he ran. He had discarded his shirt while we were practising; checking with me first, though I didn't have any problem with it, and hadn't bothered with putting it back on.

"What is it about Ian that you love so much?" Jared asked and I bit my bottom lip while thinking about it and watching him steal the ball from Melanie.

"Everything; I thought that much was clear," I responded and Jared chuckled.

"Well, I knew that much, but what really drew you in?"

I sat and watched Ian grab Melanie around the waist, pick her up and lift her out of the way, setting her on the ground behind him so that he could take the ball from her. I smiled a little at his actions, and Jared hit my knee.

"That's cheating!" Mel's voice rang out through the room and seemed to echo forever.

"She's right!" Jared responded while Ian just winked at me.

"What was wrong with that? It was fair," I said to Jared and he shoved my shoulder a little harder, nearly causing me to fall over.

"Hey!" I said, sitting myself back up again and saw that same look on Ian's face as he looked over towards us. Unfortunately, his momentary distraction let Mel steal the ball away from him and she tore off towards his net. Jared cheered her on and I groaned, making Ian look to see what had happened.

"Well, what is it about him?" Jared asked again as we watched Ian slide and kick the ball away from her.

"He's just... amazing," I replied, smiling to myself.

"Well that's nice and vague."

"Well, you know what I mean," I said. "It's like the same things you like about Mel, only reversed, cause obviously Ian's not a girl."

"Clearly," he snorted. "But what was it initially?"

"Why are you so interested in knowing this? Don't you find it a little creepy?" I asked, finding it a little suspicious.

"No, why would I find it creepy? I'm merely just interested. I can't really see anyone falling for him like you did, particularly when he hated you so much in the beginning," Jared explained and I nodded. "I also find it interesting how you could fall for someone of a completely different species and not have a problem with it at all."

"Everyone has the chance of falling in love with a species, or a member of another species when they go to that planet; it's the chance we take. That's really the whole point of going to the planets; to find somewhere that you absolutely fit in and fall in love with," I explained to Jared while watching Ian chase down Mel for the ball again.

"I never found that place until I came here to Earth with you guys. I kept on going from planet to planet and never found anything; never found the thing that drew someone in and compelled them to stay there," I paused for a moment and smiled over at Ian, though he wasn't looking at us. "Ian is the one who helped me to fit in the most, beside like Jeb, when I first came here even though he obviously didn't like me very much in the beginning. So yes, I fell in love with this planet, but it was because of the compassion that Ian showed towards me that helped to open my eyes to it."

"So you're really happy here then?" Jared asked and I nodded.

"I am. I'm really glad that Ian stayed behind from that raid, even though he wasn't exactly very nice in the beginning and everything," I told him and he nodded.

"Hey now, why so serious?" Mel asked us and I looked up to see her and Ian standing over us.

"Nice pun Mel. That was an awesome movie, eh?" Ian said, smiling down at her.

"It could have been way better," Jared replied, standing up beside them. Ian extended an arm to me and I took his hand as he helped me up. "It would have been awesome if I was in it."

"Oh please Jared, you're so full of yourself," Mel told him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"But you still love me all the same," Jared said, looking down at her and I felt a tug on my hand and looked to see Ian pulling me away.

"I figured we should leave before they get too mushy or something," he explained and I happily followed him.

"We'll take the good lantern since they're clearly too preoccupied," Ian chuckled, scooping it up and we walked out of the room.

"What movie were you guys talking about?" I asked Ian and he looked down at me.

"It was an old Batman movie. Well, not so old I guess, but it _was_ a few years ago. It was a big movie in its time. Heath Ledger, this actor was in it and it was all big cause he was the Joker and he died before the movie was released and stuff."

"Oh. Sounds like a good movie?" I said a little warily, not understanding what a Batman or a Joker was, but I just went along with it.

"It wasn't bad. One day I'll show it to you. It disappeared when the souls started coming around because you know, it was all about violence and stuff."

"Okay," I agreed, starting to picture the movie in my head, and tried not to get too excited and looking forward to actually seeing it, because it probably wouldn't happen any time soon.

"I think that a bath for both of us is in order, what do you say?" he asked, breaking me out of my imagining of it and I nodded.

"I feel all gross from sweating and you don't exactly smell so nice yourself, Ian."

"Let's go and get our towels and soap and get cleaned up."

We walked through the caves and said hello to a few people, but I always tugged on Ian's arm and excused us before he could stink up the air around them, because he really did smell. I didn't mind it so much because it came from him, but it still stank and I was really just thinking about them. We got back to the room and I pushed aside the door and he shook his head before walking through and started to root through all our clothes.

"Ian, all of our towels and shampoo are on the top shelf, what are you looking for?" I asked, giggling a bit as he winked at me.

"I know. I'm looking for our bathing suits. You do have one, don't you?" he asked and I frowned at his back.

"Yeah, I do," I said warily. "Why do you need it?"

"So that we can take a bath together; save water and all."

"W... we don't need to do that. I mean, there's plenty down there and all, right?"

"Are you okay?" Ian asked, standing up from where he was kneeling to grab his suit from the bottom shelf and looked over at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just... yeah."

Truthfully, I was freaked out that he was even suggesting that we bathe together, even though we were technically going to be wearing clothes, but I never thought that he would want to do that with me. It had never occurred to me before then that Ian would want to get closer to me, other than the kissing and stuff we had been doing, but then I remembered that he was only human and controlled entirely too much by him emotions. Just realizing that he might want to be intimate one day really messed with my head and I was a little freaked out.

"Wanda what's up? You know that you can talk to me about anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know," I said, sitting on the side of the mattress and I felt it sink with Ian's weight as he sat down behind me.

"You want to talk?" he asked, rubbing his hands up my arms and tingles ran up and down them.

"I... it's okay," I said. "It's really nothing."

"Wanda, look at me," he instructed, wrapping his arms tight around my waist and picked me up before settling me down in his lap again. "Something is bothering you and I want to know what it is."

"Ian..."

"Wanda," he said firmly and I knew that he wasn't going to budge. I looked down in our laps and saw his hands rise to cup both of my cheeks, lifting my face up to his and then he touched his nose to mine. I sighed before nodding and moving both of our noses with the small movement.

I pulled my face from his and looked down, clasping my hands together in nervousness that the conversation would go badly.

"Ian...do you...do you think that we're moving too fast?" I said gently and heard him gasp.

"Wha...what do you mean?" I noticed that Ian's voice was a little elevated and I knew then that he was just about as nervous as I was.

"It's just... I dunno. Since I came back here and we decided to give this another shot, I just kind of feel like we've been moving a little fast and it... please don't take this the wrong way, but to me it feels as though you've been trying a little hard to get us right back where we were before, and yeah."

"I see," Ian said, sounding a little down and I chanced a small glance up at Ian to gage his reaction and I sort of wished that I hadn't. He was looking down at me quite sadly and nodded his head once he noticed that I was looking.

"I'm sorry Wanda if it feels like that to you. If you want to take things slower, we certainly can. I just was so happy at the prospect of finally having you back right where you belonged that I suppose that I overdid it a bit."

"Ian..." I tried to say something, but he placed a finger over my lips to silence me.

"Tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll fix it, I swear. Do you just need some space? I can give you that. I'd give you the world if I could, and I'd certainly give you the time that you need for this. I don't want to guilt you into this, I want to make that clear," Ian continued, making sure to look me right in my silver eyes.

"No. The one thing that I don't need is space; I don't want to go anywhere away from you ever again, even if it's just moving rooms for awhile. I can't do it Ian," I said, looking up at him pleading with him to understand that. "I just feel like... I don't know."

"It's okay Wanda. We can take things slower," Ian said, sliding me off of his lap and standing up, grabbing his swim trunks and a towel.

"Ian," I called out to him, but he offered me a small smile and walked through the doors without saying a word.

"Crap. Ian!" I called out again, running out to the door, but he had already disappeared from the hallway.

I quickly ran back inside the room and closed my eyes, hating that he seemed so down about that; it was why I didn't want to talk to him in the first place at all. I hurriedly tossed through my clothes looking for my bathing suit and put on the first one that I found, shoving my clothes on over top of it and tearing out of the room with my shampoo in hand. I left the room and ran right into Jamie.

"Hey Wanda! What's wrong?" he immediately asked, probably noticing my frazzled face right away.

"Have you seen Ian?" I asked and he shook his head. I took off running down the hall before he could even respond to my actions.

There were quite a few people milling around the main plaza, some of them were inspecting the crops that were just starting to shoot up out of the ground, but I kept close to the wall and sprinted towards the tunnel that led to the bathing room. Between all the practise drills with Ian and the running that I was doing to find him, I thought that I would be in great shape from then on.

My footsteps seemed to echo very loudly off the walls of the tunnel until it opened up into the area outside of the bathing room where the stream was. I looked around for Ian, but it was hard to see because I hadn't brought my lantern with me and it was all dark inside there.

I groaned to myself and dropped my towel and shampoo to the floor; the latter making a very loud noise as it hit the rock and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. I had figured that Ian would have gone to bathe, but I couldn't see him anywhere, and I wasn't about to check in every single little crevice and shadow.

"Wanda?" Ian's voice echoed from somewhere and I looked around for the source of it.

"Yes?" I said, still continuing to look around for him.

"I'm over here," he said and I noticed something shift in the shadows about five feet from me. I slowly walked over to him and kneeled down on the hard rock in front of his huddled form.

"I'm sorry," I offered but I heard him sigh in response.

"Don't be sorry, you were telling the truth. I admire that about you, you know."

"You shouldn't. All it did was hurt you," I replied, shaking my head.

"It didn't hurt me," he said and I sighed.

"Ian. You are not the one to run away like that. You just..."

"I am though, Wanda. I am that type of guy. I... I don't like confrontation when I'm caught like that and I tend to flee; I always have, since I was a little kid. I also have this thing where I get mad really quickly when I don't like things. I think that part of that has to do with growing up having Kyle as an older brother though, but still, that fact still remains," he confessed and I shook my head.

"But you're so compassionate and loving and..."

"That's just one side of me. You've seen the other side too Wanda, remember?" Ian said, reaching out and touching my neck. Even though his touch sent sparks of electricity flowing under my skin, I shuddered a bit knowing what he was referring to.

"I'm sorry that you ever had to see that."

"No, it's good. I'm glad that I got to."

"You're glad?" he asked, his voice all steely and I could hear his teeth grind together. "You're _glad_ that I tried to kill both you and Melanie? What the hell?"

"No no no. I'm not glad that you tried to kill us, I'm really not. I'm happy that you didn't of course. I'm just glad that I know that you have another side to you and everything. It would be bad if I didn't and something happened and yeah," I trailed off, feeling stupid. "I don't know what I'm saying. Ignore me."

"No, I get it Wanda. And I left the room because it was hard for me to think clearly in there. I guess I was hurt a little tiny bit because I didn't see it coming, but I really just wanted to think about how to back off from you a little bit so that I wasn't so overbearing or trying too hard with you, you know," Ian told me and I closed my eyes.

"This is my fault. I felt a little overwhelmed for awhile and I talked to Mel about it and she told me to tell you about it. I didn't want you to feel like you had to change anything too drastically. I mean... I loved where we were at before, but I think that me going away changed things Ian," I explained and I heard him sigh.

"I just think that in the beginning... I dunno. I thought that we would have to start again from scratch after I hurt you like that, and it seemed as though we didn't; like we just started where we left off and it freaked me out a little bit. And I'm sorry for that."

"No, I am," Ian said, holding my hand in his. "I should have talked to you about everything instead of just assuming. But I'm glad that we got to have this talk right now. I think that I know where you're coming from now."

"I'm sorry," I said again and bit my bottom lip.

"Wanda," Ian groaned. "Stop apologizing right now. This isn't your fault; it's mine too and I'm going to take some blame for it, okay?"

"You shouldn't have to," I mumbled and felt his body shift on the ground beside me and I could tell that he was standing.

"I'm going to go clean up; think about this some more, okay?" Ian asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," I replied, listening as he retreated into the pool room and heard the tiny splash as he jumped into the pool.

I sat there for a moment longer thinking about the conversation that we had just had and about how he thought that he had to change himself when that really wasn't true; I had to as well. I felt bad that I had put that on him about us moving too fast because he seemed to be pulling away from me, and that wasn't what I had wanted either. I realized that I had messed it up, and it was going to have to be my job to fix it.

I was determined to fix it right then and there and take a page out of Melanie's book and be confident with what I wanted. I wanted us to be like where we had left off, but I realized that it would take some time to get there. I smiled to myself, scooped up my towel and shampoo and marched into the bathing room, praying that Ian was still wearing his swim trunks.

"Wanda? Is that you?" Ian asked from the other side of the pool where he was probably swimming. Evidently he'd heard the footsteps, but just wanted to make sure it was just me being his peeping tom.

"Yeah, it's me," I replied, taking my shirt off and undoing the button on my shorts, sliding them down my legs and kicking them off to the side.

"What are you doing? I..."

I didn't hear the rest of his sentence, as I had taken a deep breath and leapt off the edge of the pool, jumping feet first into the warm water. As soon as my head broke through the surface of the water, I felt hand on my arm, dragging me along in the water until my feet were able to touch the bottom.

"Wanda, what were you thinking? I thought you were going to stay out there because we needed some space and to take it slowly," Ian said, still holding on to my arm.

"I do think that we need to go a little slow, but that doesn't mean that we have to pull away from each other like that. We were going to swim together before, why does it change now?"

"I... I just thought that you would never come in here like that. I mean, I thought that you didn't want to go so fast," Ian said and I could barely see his outline moving, though I knew that he was close to my by the way that the water rippled around my body.

"I know."

"You're confusing me, Wanda," Ian admitted and I giggled a little.

"I'm confusing myself," I said, shaking my head. "I just... I mean. I liked where we were before, but I don't want to get there too fast or too slow, you know?"

"No. I don't. But I think that this is something that we're going to have to figure out along the way," he remarked and I nodded.

"Hold on a second," Ian instructed me.

I could hear water moving around his body before a loud splashing noise and the slapping of Ian's bare feet slapping as they touched the rock and echo around the room. The footsteps got quieter before a light shone through the doorway and I could visibly see Ian running towards the pool and diving in head first. He must have brought a lantern down with him, but I didn't see it before.

It was still darker in the corner where I stood, which was why I jumped about a mile high when I felt something ghost by my leg. The scream was building in my chest when Ian's head broke the surface of the water in front of me.

"Ian!" I practically cried out to him, my heart still leaping in my chest. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"I hope that you didn't mean that literally," he teased, blue eyes bright and clear while I blushed.

"Of course not. But I really thought that it was something that had come out of the rocks, or something there was out to get me like..."

My voice faltered as I didn't want to bring up that day; I'd never voiced what had actually happened to anyone.

"Like Kyle?" Ian supplied and I looked away.

"Why do you always avoid telling me? I mean, I know what happened. I know what Kyle did to you. Actually, I'm surprised that you don't have like panic attacks when you walk in here from all the memories," he mused and I shook my head.

"I fell Ian, there was nothing to be scared of coming back here," I tried to argue, but he wasn't having that.

"I still don't believe it," he whispered and the sound of it sent chills through my body; good ones though.

"Are you cold Wanda?" Ian asked me, standing up out of the water.

I could see every bead of water falling off of his body and I followed one drop with my eyes as it fell from his hair until it got the tip of his shorts. I looked up at him then and blushed again when he smirked and raised an eyebrow at me.

"No, I'm not cold," I muttered, noticing the goose bumps that had mysteriously appeared on Pet's body.

"Really. Because that's not what your body is telling me," he said, rubbing my arms.

"Pet's body," I interjected before I could even begin to stop myself and his hands stopped moving.

"No, _your_ body," he countered and I shook my head a little.

"Technically, it's Pet's."

"Wanda, if it was, you wouldn't be here with me right now, and you are. This body would be back where it came from and you'd just be in a different one is all. Besides, you wear this body better than anyone else could, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Plus, I wouldn't be able to do this if it were Pet now, would I? She would have turned us all in by now."

To illustrate his point, Ian moved his hands from Pet—my arms and placed them on my hips, pulling me forwards to him so that there was only about two inches between our bodies.

"I wouldn't be able to do this either," he murmured as he ran his hands up and down my back, massaging my neck a little.

"Or this," Ian whispered as he brought my face closer to his before pressing his lips to mine.

I literally melted in Ian's arms, as one of his hands was still gripping the back of my neck, while the other hand had snaked around my waist.

"You okay?" he asked, moving his lips against mine as he spoke, and I nodded while Ian gently bit my bottom lip.

"Good," he practically growled before devouring my lips.

My hands seem to move on their own as they wrapped themselves around his neck and toyed with the hair at the base of his scalp. My knees felt weak all of a sudden and I broke my lips from Ian's to try and regain some sort of composure.

"Back up," Ian whispered to me and I silently complied, taking a few steps until I was pressed up against the wall of the pool, fully supported by it.

"Better?" he asked, kissing my jaw and I nodded before he attacked my lips again.

I managed to get so caught up in his kisses that I lost all sense of time that I was with him, but I knew that it seemed much too soon before we broke apart, each of us gasping for air. As Ian kissed along my hairline, I realized that my legs had become wrapped around his torso and went to move them, but Ian's hands came to rest upon them, holding them tight around him.

"Sorry," we both said at the same time before I giggled.

"You first," he chuckled, nibbling at my earlobe. "Though you know you shouldn't be apologizing to me at all."

"Yeah well, you shouldn't be doing it to me either. But I'm sorry for getting myself so wrapped around you; I don't know what came over me," I apologized, turning my head to the side and I felt his lips leave my skin.

"I'm certainly not sorry about that," he said. "But I _am_ sorry if that was too fast. I just got so caught up in everything that I didn't think..." I cut him off by pressing my fingers to his lips, but he just ended up kissing them anyways.

"It was fine," I replied and he smiled.

"Awesome," Ian said, kissing my forehead. "Now how about we wash up a little bit, kay?"

"Sure," I agreed, going to move again but he held me in place, opting to carry me through the water over to where Ian's shampoo lay. He offered it out to me and I nodded, which was when he let me go and I gently floated down to the bottom of the pool.

"Turn around," he instructed me gently and I complied, smiling as I heard the lid being opened and the bottle squeezed. I had no idea what he was going to do until I felt his hands upon my scalp, rubbing circles in my hair.

I let my head fall back as he washed my hair and relished in the sensation of it; I had never had anyone wash my hair before, but the motions were stirring up Pet's memories of going to get her hair cut and having it washed. To her it had felt good, but nothing like how it felt when Ian's fingers were the ones doing the work; there was a certain element of almost magic to it. I involuntarily moaned at the sensation and Ian's fingers stopped working immediately.

"Are you okay?" I asked, lifting my head back up and starting to turn around to see Ian.

"I'm fine," Ian replied, gripping my arms and holding me in place. "You just have no idea what you do to me," he added, resuming washing my hair.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, getting confused with his cryptic little remark.

"Don't worry about it. I'll explain it to you some other time," Ian said, kissing the back of my neck and I shivered.

"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Definitely not a bad thing," Ian said, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smirking.

"Okay then."

Ian finished washing my hair, letting me dunk my head under the water to rinse it out and I quickly washed my body while he did his hair; I had wanted to return the favour but wasn't allowed to according to him. He then quickly jumped out of the pool and helped me out, wrapping me up in my towel at the same time.

"Thank you Ian," I said, kissing his cheek gently as he bent over to dry off his legs and I felt my cheeks blush at my boldness both then and before when I had leapt into the pool.

"Trust me, the pleasure was all mine," he quipped before standing up straight and grabbing a hold of my face with his hand, pressing his lips to mine.

"Hey! You wanna get a move on? I've been waiting for like hours to get washed up and I'm getting tired of waiting!" we heard Jeb's voice echo through the cave and I jumped apart from Ian in surprise. He laughed at me as I gathered up our stuff and marched out of the room, passing by a smirking Jeb.

"'Bout time," he mumbled.

"Sorry," I replied and he shrugged before heading into the room.

"Wanda, wait up," I heard Ian call out, so I slowed down a little, allowing Violetta, Lily and Brandt to pass by me at the same time.

"Let me carry some of this stuff," he offered and I sighed, allowing him to carry his shampoo since I knew from many experiences that he wouldn't give it up. Of course he was quick though and took mine as well.

"You know, I really think that I can carry my own shampoo," I said and he shrugged, taking my hand in his.

"I know," Ian said as we walked hand in hand back to our room.

I knew that this kind of weird spot that we were in would dissipate soon enough once we figured things out; like how not to go too slow or too fast, and I was glad for that. I didn't want to seem like a brat for thinking like that, but I knew that he understood at least a little bit and for that I was grateful. I smiled up at Ian as we walked and he returned it, leaning down to kiss the tip of my nose. I knew then that we would be all right.

**A/N: 8 014 words.**

**Okay so I know that this is verrrry late and everything but I haven't had internet on my comp since two days after my last update. Lame. So this chapter was stuck with no place to go!  
Luckily since I had so much time with no internet, I finished this one, the next one and the start of another chapter too.**

**Has anyone been watching the Olympics??! Very exciting stuff ,and I'm very proud that it's here in Canada too! AND even better since we won our first gold medal in the Men's moguls last night as well!! Can you believe that it was our first gold medal that we have won in an Olympic Games on Canadian soil? It's never been done before! Well done Alexandre Bilodeau!**

**I'll update again Wednesday or Thursday by the latest!  
Review :)**


	38. Something More

**I can't believe I've just finished my first story. I may cry.**

**Thank you SO MUCH to islandofdreams, littledhampir13, O'SheaFan, Separate Entity, WhiteCamellia, anoek013, iamnicolecullen, kimmitwilight, HockeeChica, ladaane, sweettara10, MissNAJones, aleex9530, Karen Mc N, RawSugarX23, brokenfromthepast and vampfan11 for your reviews. I have to especially thank everyone who has been with me from the very beginning and also a big thanks to everyone who is still reading and reviewing. You guys are all incredible and I never would have been able to continue this fic without you! Xxx**

**Well, here we go...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.**

**Kyle POV**

It was the middle of the night and I was lying in the little bed with Sunny just watching her sleep. I had to go outside to take over the lookout for the night, as it was basically the only time that I could get away from Sunny without her knowing that I had left her alone. I knew that she was getting better with being left alone in places, though she would always come running back to me in the end. I thought that it was funny that she still didn't really trust even Ian or Jared; even after all we'd been through together.

I sighed, propped myself up on my right elbow and watched as her chest rose and fell while she still slept on. I reached over and gently traced my fingers along her face, just gently so that I didn't wake her up, but enough so that I could still feel the electricity flow between my finger tips and her skin.

I still couldn't help but to hold onto the hope that Jodi was going to come back to me, even though it had been months since I had brought Sunny back to the caves; and years since she'd been inserted into her. Wanda had talked about the ratio or whatever, and I figured that it didn't seem good that Sunny had been in there so long, but I could still hope.

"Kyle," a voice whispered to me from the doorway and I lifted my head to see over Sunny's sleeping body.

"What?" I asked, noticing Aaron when he stepped into the room.

"You do know that it's about our time to go out, eh?" he whispered and I nodded, touching Sunny's face one last time before I hoisted myself out of the bed, ducking so that I didn't smack my head off of the ceiling.

"Yeah, I know. I'm coming," I whispered back, making my way out of the room and I moved the curtain out of place, stepping into the hallway.

"You ready bro?" Aaron asked, slapping me on the back as we walked down the hall towards the fork in the tunnels.

"Guess so. I hate midnight duty though; nothing happens," I complained and he nodded.

"I hear you. Though nothing really happens when we're on patrol at

"Guess so. I hate midnight duty though; nothing happens," I complained and he nodded.

"I hear you. Though nothing really happens when we're on patrol at _any_ time of day," he pointed out. "At least at night it's a little easier to sleep. I can take the first shift if you'd like," Aaron offered.

"No, I will. I'm too awake to fall back asleep right now," I rejected his offer as we rounded the tunnel and headed towards one of the secret entrances in the caves. In no time at all we were relieving the people who were already up there of their duty and settled in. Aaron leaned back against the rock at once and I could tell that he was asleep within seconds by the sounds of his obnoxious snoring.

I sighed and sat down, grabbing the binoculars to look through and do a quick scan before I settled in for awhile. There was nothing out there from what I could see, just a few plants moving in the gentle breeze; there wasn't even the sign of a coyote or _anything_. It was going to be a boring night out there, I had decided. I ran my hands through my hair before yawning, making the mental note to ask Sunny if she could give my hair a trim. I didn't know if she could actually cut hair, but if she declined Lily or someone could do it then.

I leaned back in my spot, resting my feet on a notch in the wall that surrounded our little spot. I kind of disliked being out in the open in light of everything that had happened, but I knew that we were well covered and that nobody could see us; not that there was anybody out there anyways. I let my thoughts drift as I stared up at the sky and they automatically turned to Ian and Wanda; which was weird because I had been doing a lot of thinking about Jodi lately.

Ian had given Wanda soccer lessons earlier on and I wasn't sure how I felt about that; they seemed to be relatively back to normal and a part of me was irked about that. They should have basically had to start over from square one after an ordeal like that, but alas, there was nothing much conventional about their relationship at all.

To me it seemed like shit that he always seemed to get what he wanted while for me there was always an obstacle in the way. I supposed that was the reason that I was hard on Ian, but if I wasn't then he would just coast through life and never have any challenges; well, real ones at least. Like, when I had gotten 'Jodi' back she wasn't even friggen there, but he gets Pet's body back and voilá, Wanda is there waiting for him as usual.

Sometimes I wondered how life would have been if he was the older brother and in my shoes. Whenever I had a day when I was feeling particularly down on myself, I would imagine that he had to go through much more shit than either of us ever had to; it was kind of like having a mental voodoo doll or something, but it worked. He didn't even know what it felt like _really_ lose someone the way that I had lost Jodi. I mean, sure what had happened to our parents was unfortunate, but nothing really compared to losing your one true love. That sounded corny as hell, but it was the truth.

In a way, I kind of resented my brother for having everything basically handed to him on a silver platter, but at the same time I was glad that he'd at least found someone that he really cared about. After all, I couldn't always hate my brother.

My thoughts shifted to Sunny and where she was sleeping in the caves below where we were perched, blissfully unaware that I had even left her. I knew that if I had told her though that she probably would have protested and tried to get me to stay with her. She had been getting better with the whole separation thing, but still clung to me.

I scanned the area one last time before I allowed myself to rest my eyes for a moment. One second I was looking out at the dark desert and the next second I was looking at blackness.

"Kyle," I could register that someone was calling my name, but I batted my hand at the air trying to make them go away.

"Kyle, seriously, something's out there," the voice said again and I reluctantly opened my eyes and was a little shocked that the sun was almost up; I'd slept longer than I had thought.

"What the hell?" I said to whoever woke me up and Aaron's face came into my view."Why are you waking me up?"

"Because I saw movement out there. You can look for yourself," he said, thrusting the binoculars in my direction.

"What the fuck," I grumbled, taking them from him holding that up to my eyes, but they were too blurry to see through. I groaned before rubbing my eyes until they weren't blurry any more before holding them back up.

"Where the hell am I looking?" I snarled at him, still unhappy that I had been woken up, and that I had slept for that long as well too.

"Over towards the big cluster of rocks on your right, jackass," he quipped back at me and I pointed the goggles to that area while flipping him off.

"I don't know why you're so worried; I'll bet that there's nothing even—" I stopped short when I saw movement out in the spot where he was telling me to look.

"What the frig is out there?"

"I don't know, that's why it's a little nerve wracking. I'm going to go and get Jeb, maybe he could help us?" Aaron offered and I shook my head, adjusting the knobs on it so that I could see better.

"No. Don't go anywhere. It's probably nothing but a stupid coyote or something, I can only imagine it to be," I told him. "Where the hell are the next people to take watch? I don't want to deal with this shit."

"They'll be here any minute Kyle, but don't you think that we should..."

"Just wait it out. Like I said, it's probably nothing," I repeated, getting aggravated that he kept on suggesting that.

"Hey Kyle, Aaron. What's new?" I heard Josh ask and turned to see Brandt coming up behind him as they came to take over for us.

" 'Bout friggen time," I said to them, tossing the binoculars in Brandt's direction and he caught them with ease.

"Keep an eye out for something by those rocks; I bet it's just an animal but Aaron seems to think otherwise," I informed them, rolling my eyes and they chuckled.

"Well, it could be," he said, walking away from our little group as I stood up and stretched. "Ah well. If anything pops up, let me know and I'll deal with it," I said, cracking my knuckles while smiling at them.

"You know, you're not as menacing as you make yourself out to be," Brandt told me and I punched him in the arm as I passed him.

"Yeah yeah mister tough guy," he said and I shook my head as I made my way down the steps. "Oh and Kyle? You might want to check on Sunny. I heard some screaming coming from the rooms, but I'm not sure if it was her again."

"Shit," I swore under my breath and broke out into a gentle jog, hoping that it wasn't her nightmares again. She never told me what they were about, but they really bothered her.

**Sunny POV**

I'd been in the middle of a really bad dream; it was the one thing that I didn't like about Jodi's body as she was prone to nightmares. It was always the same one that would come flashing through her memories and it recurred more often that I would have liked. It wasn't as though she was able to break through or anything like Melanie had done to Wanda; at least I thought that it wasn't.

I rolled over and felt around on the other side of the bed, but it was empty; Kyle must have left to go to the bathroom. I noticed that he left to do that on some nights, but others he stayed the whole night. I didn't have a problem with it when he left, but at that moment I really needed him as I was sufficiently freaked out from that dream.

I curled onto my side and waited for him to return while trying not to close my eyes and let the dream come back. Even though I tried my best, I was just so tired that they close involuntarily.

_Kyle and I were sitting at the kitchen table in his house and I was taking in the surroundings around us as we sat there; only it wasn't really me sitting there, it was Jodi. I saw that there were a number of pictures of Ian and Kyle hanging on the walls and a few knick knacks littered all over the shelves that were in the corners of the room. I noticed Kyle's hacky sack and Ian's baseball cap hat he'd flung there when I was over the day before._

_Tensions were high between us as they had been over the past several weeks because Kyle and I had been arguing over some dumb issue between us. A few weeks prior he had come to me all convinced that something was happening and that our planet was being taken over or something, but I just didn't see it. He'd even gone as far as to point it out to his brother and his parents and he just about had them convinced too._

_But what I'd learned that day from my parents was just over the top; he had somehow gone and contacted them behind my back and convinced them that something was up as well. That was the reason that they had flown out to Kyle's place and were sitting in the living room with his parents. Apparently they were discussing what to do in this situation while I sat there with Kyle fuming mad._

"_Jodi..." Kyle started to say but I cut him off._

"_Don't even start Kyle. I'm really pissed off at you right now," I told him and he fell silent for the time being, which was really saying something because he was never quiet._

"_Jodi, I did it for your own good you know."_

"_Right," I snorted. "If you were doing it for 'my own good' you would have left them alone and be done with it. Nothing is happening Kyle, you're making it up."_

"_I'm not," he growled and I knew that he was getting riled up again. "My soccer coach at the college has been turned too; he doesn't want us to hurt any other players. Last week he told us to go out for blood. How do you explain that?"_

"_He probably just had a change of heart," I replied, picking at the dirt underneath my nails. "After all, you guys were playing too rough in the first place; you gave that guy a concussion last game."_

"_That was because the idiot was in my way," he countered and I shrugged._

"_Same difference, right Ian?" I asked as he had just walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge._

"_Whatever," he replied, pulling out a pitcher of juice and began searching through the cupboards for a cup. "You guys know that I don't like to get in the middle of your shit."_

"_Well I still think that it was pretty low of you to call my parents like that," I told him, shaking my head. "Ian would never do that to his girl."_

"_Ian doesn't have a fucking girl," Kyle grumbled._

"_But if I did, I don't think that I would have..." Ian was interrupted when Kyle whipped the hacky sack off of the shelf behind him at his brother._

"_Shut the hell up!" Kyle yelled at him as Ian rubbed his sore shoulder._

"_Kyle, don't yell at your brother," I snapped at him._

"_Well don't get him involved," he yelled back._

The dream always escalated from there when they yelled at each other and then had a yelling match with both of their parents and Ian in the room as well. I always felt bad for Ian having to witness their fighting, and a part of me never understood how they could fight so much, and yet love each other even more. The memory would then slow down and focus in on another part.

_I was still angry with Kyle at everything that had gone on and even more mad at the fact that my parents were not only on board with him, but were taking me away from him. Even after all the persuading that his parents had done to convince mine to go find some place with them, my parents had decided to go back home to wait out whatever was coming. I had decided that they were stupid; if there really was something out there, not that I believed there was, it would certainly be safer to stick together and have more men around than just my dad._

_My parents had gone out to the car already and I angrily put my coat on, doing up all the buttons._

"_Jodi I know that you're upset, but it's really for your own good that at least you're going to go into hiding," Kyle said in a sort of gentle voice but I snorted._

"_Really. I don't seem to see it that way."_

"_You know that I would rather have you here with me; I made that much clear but evidently it's not going to work out that way," he said and I could feel his presence behind me. I tried to move out of his way but he was quicker and wrapped his arms around my waist._

"_Kyle," I protested, trying to move around but he had me good._

"_Jodi just promise me one thing," he said and I rolled my eyes._

"_What?"_

"_Promise me that we'll see each other again."_

"_Of course we will," I said, shaking my head. "You just wait. I bet that this whole 'end of the world' thing will be over in like a week."_

"_Oh Jodi if only that were true," he said into my neck, for he had nestled his head into my hair. Kyle then moved me around in his arms so that we were facing each other and the front door opened._

"_You just about ready Jodi?" my mother asked and I nodded my head. "We'll be in the car."_

"_I'm sorry. I really wanted you to stay with me," Kyle said but I shrugged._

"_Like I said, we'll be fine up there. But you know that I'd always rather be with you," I said, my anger dissolving as I looked up at Kyle. For such a tough guy he could really be a sweetheart when he wanted to be and luckily it was one of those times._

"_I love you Jodi," he said before kissing the tip of my nose._

"_Me too," I replied and he hugged me tight before letting me go._

That part of the dream always made me cry; why hadn't Jodi said that she loved him back? I knew from her emotions towards him that she clearly did, but I didn't understand it at all. The last part was what always had me screaming out. They said that I was supposed to remember the end of my host body's life the first time after we had been inserted, but for me the memory kept haunting me; I just never told anyone about it.

_Mom and Dad had made my sister Jessica and I go up to our cottage out in the woods as soon as we had returned from Kyle's place. It was miserable in the cabin for a long time, as neither my sister nor I saw the real reason for us being up there. Then one day we turned on the TV and it was all different; the news reporters had stopped talking about the violence and crimes that had always happened; instead they were doing stories on humanitarian things and how the world was cleaning itself up. _

_Then one day the crime rate was zero and the police officers were shown joking around with regular people instead of arresting them; they'd even gotten rid of jails and turned them into apartments for people who formerly lived on the streets. There was no such thing as a break-in anymore; nothing got stolen so basically nothing was happening. That was when Dad had decided that nobody could go into town anymore and I started to take this whole thing seriously. Maybe Kyle was right in the first place. _

_I was sitting outside in the backyard one day when it happened. I heard knocking on the door and Jessica announced that she would go and get it; seconds later she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I jumped out of my chair, throwing down the book that was in my hand and started to run towards the cottage. I was stopped just as I was approaching it by my dad._

"_Jodi you have to run. Go and run as far away from here as you can."_

"_Why? What are they doing to her?" I asked as her screams were muffled. _

"_They're going to change her. It's too late to save her," he said, holding me back so that I couldn't run through the house. "I will go to her; you get away from here."_

"_But I can't Dad," I protested._

"_This is what Kyle was talking about. Do you want to see him again?" I nodded my head, my eyes starting to well up with tears. "Then you need to run and find somewhere to hide. Go, hurry!"_

_Dad pushed me away from him and turned back to the house._

"_Love you Jodi Bear."_

"_Love you Dad," I said before running into the woods. _

_As I was running through them I spotted my Mom hiding out behind a tree watching the house._

"_Mom!" I called out, but she hushed me._

"_Go Jodi, get away from here," she said, giving me a light shove, but I hugged her for I wasn't sure if I'd see her again._

"_I love you baby," she whispered, kissing my forehead as my tears began to run down my face._

"_I love you too Mom," I replied before taking off on her as well._

_I ran as hard as I could for as long as I could, sobbing like crazy just trying to put some distance between me and the cottage. As I ran, Kyle's words kept on sounding through my head and I really wished that I'd listened to him before, rather than after it was too late._

'_They'll probably come after you when you least expect it and it doesn't matter where you are,' he'd told me. 'I think they do some kind of surgery and then it changes you completely... I don't want that to happen to us, please just listen to me Jodi...it's a bug or a virus that they put into you; Ian found out today...we're leaving and I want you to come with me, I can't bear to leave you behind and have you be taken over by these aliens...our neighbours have been infected, they gave themselves over to the police because they were doing illegal stuff inside and they didn't even get into trouble... I wish that you'd listen to me.'_

_I heard male voices behind me and they seemed kind of close. I looked over my shoulder to see if I could see them when I tripped over a broken log on the ground. Just as I was about to give up, I looked up and saw the old clubhouse that Dad had built for Jessica and I when we were little. I managed to scrape myself up off of the forest floor and race towards the little cabin, squishing myself through the door and slamming it tight. I leaned back up against the farthest wall from the door, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to keep my breathing down and not noticeable so that they would pass right by me. _

_Several long minutes later, my legs were cramping up and I clamped my hands over my mouth to keep any noises from escaping as I heard footsteps draw nearer and voices discuss which direction I had gone. As I heard them talk about checking out the 'little house', my heart started pounding and I swore that they could hone in on that, for the next thing I knew the door was opening and they were trying to get inside._

_As soon as one of the men touched my foot, I let my hands drop from my face and started screaming out, hoping that someone, anyone would hear me. Since the only ones that could have possibly heard me were my parents and sister, they weren't much help. Instead, I thrashed around as best as I could and tried to fight them off, but it was to no avail. The men had to break down the wall where the door was since none of them could actually fit through the hole to get to me and once they had me outside, I bit the person who was holding me and he let go for a fraction of a second._

_That little time was all I needed and I took off running away from them but there were just too many of them. I was basically tackled to the ground and I heard them hollering to prepare something for me. I saw a bottle come into my vision and I tried to twist and turn my head every which way so that they wouldn't get it close to my face; in all honesty it had scared me. The man basically on top of me held my face in one place as they pressed down on the top and all kinds of spray came out of it and all I could smell were blueberries._

'_I'm sorry Kyle, I've failed you,' I thought as my lids grew heavier. 'I love you.'_

I screamed out as the dream ended as I usually did and sat right up again, realizing that I was indeed sobbing hard like every single time I had that dream. I looked over in the dim light and saw that Kyle still wasn't back, so I crept out of bed in search of him; only he knew how to calm me down, even if he didn't know what really got me so riled up in the first place.

**Ian POV**

I was startled awake as a scream pierced the air and I immediately looked over to see if it was Wanda, but she was still sleeping peacefully. I let out a sigh of relief and rolled over onto my back before sitting up a little, resting my back on the wall behind me and concentrating on getting my heart rate back down after that scare. I looked up at the holes in the ceiling and saw that it was starting to get light out and I groaned at the fact that there was still a lot of time to sleep left and I was wide awake.

"Mmn Ian," Wanda mumbled out from beside me and I turned my head towards her to see her silver eyes opened and facing me and a small smile gracing her lips.

"You should be sleeping," I said to her, nodding my head in her direction.

"So should you," she whispered while still giving me a bit of a smile. Wanda then started moving around, pushing and pulling on the blankets until her head was resting on my stomach and her arms were around my waist. I reached down and ran my fingers through her hair, loving the feeling.

"Ian?" she asked.

"Hm?" I responded and she sighed.

"How come yesterday when I was talking to Jared you looked kind of... weird?" she asked and I lifted my head so that it was resting on the wall as well.

"What do you mean?" I countered, though I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Well, I don't exactly know how to explain it, but you kind of got this odd look on your face whenever I would laugh or when you would look over at us or something," she said in a small voice and I felt her fingers tighten around me a little bit.

"Um, well..." I was trying to put off what I was really feeling because it was embarrassing, but at the same time I wanted to be open with her, given our new understanding of sorts.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she said yawning towards the end of her speech.

"No, I will, it's okay. To be completely honest with you, I was a little jealous," I said quickly and felt a weight missing off my stomach and I glanced down to see that she was looking directly at me.

"Why?" she asked incredulously.

"I don't know, it's stupid, but I just felt like he was able to get through to you at a time when I wasn't really and I felt a little jealous. I regret that now, but then it was a genuine feeling," I admitted, closing my eyes when I felt a hand on my face.

"Ian, I'm sorry that you felt that way."

"Quit apologizing Wanda, it's okay. It was just something that I felt at that time. I don't feel that way and I know that it was stupid for me to think that."

"You're right, it was," she said and I was a bit shocked. "Ian, you know that I'm yours, and I'm not going anywhere at all, ever. To be honest with you, I'm kind of upset that you'd think that Jared and I had something; it's a bit insulting."

"I didn't mean for that," I said, caressing her cheek gently and it didn't escape my notice that she leaned into my hand. "I know that you and I aren't leaving each other. I had no right to feel that way."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. I have to admit that in those first couple of weeks after I'd been taken out, whenever you would give Melanie those looks I felt a little jealous as well," she admitted and my eyes widened.

"What?"

"I was. I knew that nothing would come of it and that it was just some weirdness between you two, just as there was some with Jared and I. But I was, you know," she said in a small voice. I cupped my hands around her face and pulled on it gently.

"Never," I said fiercely. "Never will anything silly like that come between us."

"Never," she whispered back and I leaned down a little bit to press our lips together.

"Are you tired?" I asked once I pulled my lips from hers and she nodded ever so slightly. "Go back to sleep."

"I can't, I'm all riled up now," she said and I chuckled lightly.

"Lie down," I instructed her and she resumed her position from before laying back down on my stomach again. I tried to keep my thoughts pure as her head was dangerously close to another part of me that was starting to really long for her.

I resumed running my hand through her soft hair as one of her free hands entwined itself with my left hand, stroking her thumb gently across the skin of my hand. I looked down at the top of my stomach and saw her left hand resting there and I stopped rubbing her head to pick up her left hand and kissed it. I heard Wanda sigh into my waist and I smiled to myself as she seemed to be settling in and I really wanted her to fall back asleep.

After a few moments I was able to hear her breathing even out and I knew that Wanda was sleeping again; so much for being all riled up as she'd put it. I smiled to myself as sleep overcame me while starting to formulate a plan for the perfect proposal for Wanda; when the time was right of course.

**Melanie POV**

"Mel, wake up!" I heard Jared calling my name, but I didn't want to wake up so I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep.

"Melanie," he called again and I pulled the covers up closer to my head but I heard him laugh and they were gone in the next minute.

"Jared," I whined and felt his body move the bed as he sat down beside me and I cracked an eye open to look at him.

"What do you want?" I mumbled and I saw him reach over for my pillow, but I held onto it tightly so that he couldn't take it away from me too.

"We've got to go up and do watch this morning, remember?" he said gently and I groaned. I did _not_ want to get out of bed. "Come on Mel, I even got Brandt and Josh to cover for us for an extra half hour so that we could sleep."

"Did you have to give them your left nut for that?" I asked, my voice a little muffled into the pillow.

"No, nothing of the sort, just my first born son," he quipped and I raised my hand to smack his leg. "I was kidding, Melanie. I would never give away my child like that. I might let someone watch over them for a little while so that we could reconnect, if you know what I mean."

"Ian and Wanda," I responded, rolling my eyes at his connotation.

"What about them?"

"They are the only ones that I will allow to watch after our child," I elaborated.

"What about Jamie? Or Sunny?" he asked and I noticed that he kept on pulling the sheets away from my body as I was getting colder by the second.

"Well, Jamie's a little too young to be trusted like that and wherever Sunny goes, Kyle follows. I think that would be enough incentive to stay away from that area," I said, removing my head from the pillow completely.

"Point taken on that one, especially," he said and I sat up, stretching my arms up above my head. I felt Jared's hands around my waist immediately and one of his hands was snaking its way up my shirt.

"Jared," I groaned again and he smirked at me.

"Speaking of children," he said and I batted his hand away.

"We don't have time for that. You were the one who's waking me up and all," I said, getting up off of the bed and stretching even more; there was no reason why I couldn't give him a little more of a teasing.

"You're going to be the death of me, Melanie Stryder," he said from the bed, shaking his head.

"I sure hope not, I need you around, Jared Howe," I said to him seriously and he rose up off of the bed.

"I'm not planning on going anywhere and you know that. Nothing can tear me apart from you," Jared said into my ear as he wrapped an arm around my waist as he walked by me. Jared kissed my neck before letting me go and I smiled at him while Jared threw a clean shirt in my direction. I quickly changed and marched towards the door.

"You coming?" I asked, holding the sheet aside at the door.

"Shoes?" he said pointedly, looking at my feet and I rolled my eyes before shoving my feet in the pair of sandals that were right inside the door, raising my eyebrow up at him where he was sitting on the bed putting his own shoes on.

"Okay, let's go," he chuckled and we set out for up top where we took over for Brandt and Josh. Once we got up there, Jared was pulled aside by Brandt while Josh took off, probably to get to sleep. I sat down and slid off my sandals and propped my feet up on the rock ledge waiting for Jared to join me.

"What was that about?" I asked, yawning as he sat down beside me.

"Apparently Kyle saw something earlier and warned them about it, so Brandt told me to watch out for it," he said, leaning back again the rock.

"Something out there?" I nodded my head towards the desert and he nodded back.

"Yeah, something about that rock pile on the right. Said there was some movement there but didn't know what it was. Brandt didn't see anything, but that doesn't mean that it's gone."

"Probably an animal or something," I said and he smiled.

"Or a Seeker."

"Jared! Why do you have to think so negatively all the time?"

"Just to keep you on your toes, babe," he answered and I rolled my eyes.

"You get to take the first shift, kay? I'm tired," I instructed him, not really giving him a choice.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," he answered, propping himself up to kiss me gently before settling back in.

"Wake me when you get tired and I'll take over. Or if anything exciting happens, which I doubt," I instructed him before laying down on the floor on my side. "Or if I start to get a little sunburned."

"There are a lot of 'or's to that, aren't there," Jared mused and I nodded.

"Course there are. But I'm dead serious about the last one. I don't want to look like a tomato around here; it would give Jeb more reasons to pick on me."

"He only does it cause he loves you," Jared said and I shrugged.

"All the same."

We were silent for a few minutes, but I found that sleep wasn't coming to me as quickly as I would have liked it to. I settled for studying Jared while he sat and watched the desert around us, seemingly uninterested in the place, which I thought was odd; he was usually all for watching everything.

"What are you thinking about?" Jared asked and I nearly jumped, not expecting him to ask me anything.

"I dunno."

"There has to be something on your mind; anything at all," he prompted me and I finally relented, there was no use keeping it inside anyways.

"I keep thinking about how we're going to get married. I mean, it'll have to be down here and someone will have to officiate, but like... I don't want much, but I don't want everyone in like their dirty old clothes for this. But at the same time, it would be nearly impossible to get that many nice clothes for everyone; especially if Sunny's the only one who could pull it off for us."

"Where there's a will, there's a way Melanie," Jared said, very philosophically and I sighed.

"I guess so."

"Mel, we'll make it happen, I promise you," Jared told me very seriously looking directly at me and I felt compelled to nod my head in agreement with him.

"Did you talk to Wanda about all of this?" he asked and I shook my head. "She might have a few ideas for you, you know. I mean, she is your maid of honour and all."

"Yeah, you're right."

Jared fell silent then and I took the opportunity to close my eyes again, picturing our little wedding that would be down in the caves. I wasn't exactly sure when it would be, for nobody really had any sort of plan, but that was okay with me; just the knowledge that I would one day officially be Jared's was enough to tide me over for the time being.

"Shit Mel, where are those binoculars?" Jared asked suddenly and I cracked an eye open to see him frantically looking around for them.

"They're on the other side of me," I told him, watching as he nearly leapt over my body to get to them and then mashed them up to his eyes.

"Is everything okay?"

"I don't know, Mel."

"Did you...see something?" I asked tentatively, sitting up beside him and he pushed my head back down well below the level of the rocks around us.

"It's possible. I saw movement," he answered and my heart dropped down into my stomach. Nobody should be out there.

**Jared POV**

I felt bad for Melanie; she just wanted things with our wedding to be so simple with everything that was going on, but I believed that she deserved so much better than that, and certainly more that I could possibly give her in our current situation. The simple fact that she was worried about everyone having formal-ish attire let me know that I really needed to make that happen for her. Just that little statement would mean a lot; and it certainly wouldn't hurt my chances of being with her either.

After our little talk I looked out at the desert toward the pile of rocks that Brandt told me to look out for, when I noticed a small movement. Quietly, so that I didn't disturb Mel who looked very engrossed in her thoughts, I made myself a little higher up so that I could safely see out without being seen myself. I saw another movement from over there, but it was hard to see with normal eyes, so I started to look around for the binoculars, which of course I couldn't find.

I asked Mel where they were and ran to get them, pushing her back down when she tried to sit up and look as well; I didn't need whatever it was spotting her and then coming after us; that wouldn't bode well at all.

"What does it look like?" Mel asked me gently and I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was definitely rattled from the new knowledge.

"It doesn't look much like an animal, I'm afraid," I said, focussing in on it. "Definitely not. I'm going down to get Kyle."

"I'll stay here..." she started to say, but I grabbed her hand.

"No flipping way you're staying out here alone," I half growled and started tugging her back down the passageway into the caves.

"Jared, who's going to keep lookout?" she protested, her feet finally catching up to her.

"It doesn't matter; we need back up more than we need one of us out there and alone," I said with finality and she dropped the subject. I had to admit that I was a bit freaked out as well, but I couldn't let her see that; I had to be strong for her.

"Where do you think Kyle will be?" she asked and I thought hard as we kept walking quickly.

"Well, Sunny was screaming out earlier on, so he might have gone directly to her. Where they went or what they did after that, I have no clue," I informed her and she broke out into a run.

"They'll be in their room, come on," she urged me and I ran along beside her. Luckily, since it was still an ungodly hour of day most people were still sleeping so we didn't run into anyone along the way. It kind of seemed like we got to the room in a record amount of time and I tugged on Mel's hand to slow her down.

"Wait one second," I told her and she frowned.

"Why do you want me to wait? This is kind of an important matter, you know."

"Yeah, but I need a minute," I said, bending over and placing my hands on my knees and breathing heavily.

"Seriously Jared? Really? You, Mister endurance big soccer player couldn't handle that?"

"No, I just can't hand the small heart attack I had right before we ran like friggen bats out of hell is all," I replied. "Okay, I'm good now."

She shook her head and then stepped up to their door and announced our arrival before pulling back their curtain door and stepping inside.

"What the hell do you want?" Kyle croaked from where he was lying with Sunny curled up beside him. "Aren't you two supposed to be up top?"

"Well, we were," Mel said, looking over at me and I nodded. "But Jared saw something that he thought you should know about. Apparently you were the first one to spot it?" she asked in a whisper, for it appeared that Sunny was sleeping, but we couldn't be sure. Sunny didn't know about when Kyle went up there in the night and for the time being it seemed as though he planned to keep it that way.

"What did you see?" he asked in a hoarse whisper, which was as quiet as we were going to get from Kyle.

"I just saw more movement from the rocks that you said there was some from. But from what I can tell it didn't look like an animal, Kyle," I explained. "It was too tall and it didn't move like an animal would have. I... I didn't get a firm visual, but it didn't look good."

"Shit," Kyle swore under his breath and he looked over at Sunny to see if she had woken up or not. Luckily she was still asleep and hadn't heard his swearing or else I had a feeling that she would have freaked out on him.

"What are we going to do?" Melanie asked and we all looked to Kyle as he leaned back with his hands over his face.

"I don't know. I have no idea for this at all," he answered and I sighed. "I guess the best that we can do is to let Jeb know so we can get a team started or something. I... I don't want to even imagine what it possibly out there."

Kyle heaved himself out of the bed and looked back at us.

"Get out of here so that I can get dressed and we can deal with this shit," he ordered of us and out of the corner of my eye I could see that Mel was getting a little pissy about his tone with her, but I grabbed her arm and started to lead her out into the hallway.

"Fucker should know better than to act like that," she grumbled and I bit back a laugh. "I mean a simple 'please leave' would have sufficed, but nooo"

"It's Kyle, what do you really expect?" I said and she shrugged before turning around to face me.

"Jared, what's going to happen now?" Mel asked me and as I looked down at her I saw that her tough girl mask was gone and her vulnerability showed through; she was really scared about whatever was out there.

I reached out and pulled her to me, crushing her against my chest but she didn't seem to care; in fact she held me to her just as tightly.

"I don't know Mel," I answered honestly, running a hand through her soft hair. "I can promise you that we will be all right though."

"What about everyone else?" she asked in a small voice and I sighed into her hair, burying my face into her shoulder.

"We'll make everything okay," I responded. I knew that she was getting a little too worked up over everything since we didn't really know what exactly it was out there, but I supposed that her feelings were legit. Those souls had already taken her away from everything once, she was probably scared half to death at the prospect of them coming back and doing it a second time. I wouldn't let that happen to her though, not now, not ever.

"Will you go and get Ian?"

"Will it make you feel a little better?" I asked, kissing the side of her head and I felt her nod.

"Ian's got a level head like you; we need that to balance out Kyle," Mel said and I nodded as well.

"We can go and get him right now; he should probably be there for the whole thing," I said, kissing her forehead and looking down at her. Mel was beginning to throw that mask back up, but since I knew how she was really feeling I had to do everything in my power to erase that.

"Don't worry," I said, running a hand over her cheek, which she leaned in to. "We're going to make this all right. I'm sure that Kyle and Jeb will have some sort of plan so that Ian and I can..."

"And me," she whispered and I shook my head.

"No way," I responded quickly.

"Jared, I'm helping with this whether you like it or not. I can't sit back and watch as people get stuff done around here, you know me." I was still very apprehensive to answer her one way or another and she smiled at me a little sadly.

"I'll have you to help me," she said, but it came out as kind of a question.

"Fine," I relented, unable to deny her that. "But if I say so, you run in the other direction, got it?"

"Jared, I..."

"You have to agree or I won't let you in on this with us."

"You have no right to boss me around," she frowned and I sighed.

"Melanie, I've already lost you once..."

"And you think I want to lose you?" she countered and I shook my head.

"No, of course not. But I can take care of myself as long as I know that you will be in a safe place. I'll always come back to you, you know that."

"Fine," Mel agreed after a moment of hesitation. "But I don't like this one bit."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," I told her and she let me go.

"Let's go and get Ian," she said, taking my hand and practically pulling me down the hallway with her. As always, I had virtually no choice but to follow behind her.

**Wanda POV**

"What do you think we should do?" a voice rang out through the room and it woke me up, but I didn't open my eyes; I could already tell that it was much too early to be functioning normally.

"Shh Mel," I heard Ian's voice whisper, but I remained very still as I could feel more than one pair of eyes on my 'sleeping body'.

"Keep your voice down," Jared whispered and I became confused. Why was everyone in our room?

"I don't want to wake her up," Ian said and I felt the bed shift as he probably either sat up or stood up from the bed. Luckily I was lying on my right side and was facing away from the door so they couldn't tell for sure that they'd woken me up.

"You'd better come though," Mel said and Ian shushed her again.

"Run this by me again," Ian instructed them and I could hear rustling from the floor; he was looking for something to wear.

"I already told you," she responded kind of harshly and it seemed as though tensions were high in the room. I really wanted to know what was going on with everyone.

"Yes well, I was half asleep seeing as how you practically ripped me from my bed," Ian said.

Jared began speaking to him in such a low voice that all I could make out were the mumbles emanating from them and it was frustrating. I really wanted to know what was going on. Plus, since they thought I was asleep I would have figured that they would have spoken in a louder voice than that; it was making me almost mad with want to know about what was so important.

"What about Wanda?" Ian asked tenderly, with his voice still just above a whisper.

"I don't want her to get involved," Melanie answered and I frowned to myself. "She's been through enough and I don't think she needs to get involved with all of this."

"I think that she'll be mad if she's left out though," Ian pointed out and I wanted to scream at them to just tell me what was going on; it wasn't fair.

"Guys!" Kyle's voice rang out even louder as it echoed everywhere and he was met by three people shushing him as I could hear his footsteps enter the room.

"Quiet, Wanda's still sleeping," Jared told him.

"It's gone," he said in a lower voice.

"What?" Mel said.

"I went running out there and it's gone; no sign of it at all."

"You went out there alone?" Ian asked incredulously. "Actually, I really shouldn't be surprised, should I?"

"No, you shouldn't," Mel responded and I bit back a giggle at their tenacity.

"Jeb was back at the base and I went to check it out; we're all clear," Kyle explained, but it only confused me some more.

"I'm going back to bed," Kyle announced. "And Jeb wants to see you, Jared. You too, Mel."

"Fine," Melanie huffed and I heard a set of footsteps getting farther away from the room. "Let's go Jared."

"Thanks for waking me anyways," Ian said and Jared laughed softly. "Let me know if anything else comes up."

"Will do, Ian," Jared responded and I could hear two sets of footsteps getting softer.

Ian sighed to himself before I felt the bed sag on his side as he sat down again and moved over towards me. I felt his chest press up against my back and set it on fire in the process while at the same time Ian moved the hair off of the back of my neck and I could feel him brushing the scar that was there. I felt myself being soothed by that small touch to my point of insertion and I relaxed a little bit more. Ian then wrapped his arm around my waist and tangled our feet together and made it so that just about my entire body was on fire from his touch; I loved the feeling.

I could tell that I was getting sleepy again as I felt right at home in Ian's arms, even if I couldn't return the sweet gesture as I was supposed to be already asleep; moving right then would have clued him in that I was up the whole time and probably freaked him out.

"I love you, Wanda," Ian whispered gently into my ear and I smiled to myself in my groggy state.

Ian hadn't actually voiced those words out loud to me since I'd returned, but the fact that I knew how he felt made me ecstatic; I knew that we would be all right. The time would come where we could say them to each other while we were both awake, but I would let it come as it may; I wouldn't push that. Ian then leaned in and kissed over top of my scar twice, and I didn't know if he did it again for I was so relaxed that I fell asleep again.

**A/N: The End.**

**9,106 words : )**

**I know that I said I'd have this out awhile ago, but it was only like 6k and I wasn't happy with parts of it, so I changed them in the little spare time that I've had.**

**So. Up next... I will post a one-shot from the Host that someone requested that I write... that should be up soon. Then I'll be starting a new Twilight story that I've been drabbling with for the better part of the last year, and of course, the sequel to this. I still want to fix up a few things in there, but I'll post an A/N when it's up! **

**Review lovelies! : )**

**PS. I had to get someone else to upload this for me because the file apparently wasn't compatible, no matter what format or program I tried it in. Does anyone else have this problem??**


	39. New Story!

**A/N: Just wanted to let everyone know that I've just posted the sequel!! It's called Say It Ain't So. Please give it some love; I'm probably just as nervous about posting the sequel as I am about posting the first chapter to this story!**

**Reviews of any kind are always welcome.**

**And thank you so much for all the love and support that you've given to me and my stories. I seriously couldn't have ever done it without all of you! Thank you!!  
xoxo**

**~LadyFingers20**


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